!li 


!i!-i!ii;i:;:i  ;i' 


III 


iitu:i;:i!ii!;iii" 


ii!^ 


linji'Ii'l'H'lHllifl:'' 


islHiililH' 


iiiiipi'iiiill 


rAja  yoga 


[i] 


SWAMI    VIVIOKANANDA 


REPRESENTATIVE    OF    THE    HINDU    RELIGION    AT    THE    WORLD'S    PARLIAMENT 
OF    RELIGIONS,    HELD    IN    CHICAGO,     1893 


VEDANTA   PHILOSOPHY 


LECTURES 


BY  THE 


SWAMI    VIVEKANANDA 


ON 


RAJA  YOCxA 

AND  OTHER  SUBJECTS 


ALSO 


PATANJALI'S  YOGA  APHORISMS,  WITH  COM- 
MENTARIES, AND  GLOSSARY  OF 
SANSKRIT  TERMS 


NEW    EDITION,    WITH    ENLARGED   GLOSSARY 

{NINTH  EDITION) 


NEW   YORK 
THE   BAKER    &   TAYLOR   COMPANY 

1913 


COPYRIGHT,    i8q7, 
BY 

WEED-PARSONS  PRINTING  COMPANY. 


COPYRIGHT,    1899, 
BY 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY. 


Y  ?  ^/  ^ 
I H  i  -^ 


Each  soul  is  potentially  divine. 

The  goal  is  to  manifest  this  divinity  within,  by  con- 
trolling NATURE,  EXTERNAL  AND  INTERNAL. 

do  this  either  by  work,  or  worship,  or  psychic  con- 
trol, or  philosophy,  by  one,  or  more,  or  all  of  these  — 
and  be  fref. 

This  is  the  whole  of  religion.     Doctrines,  or  dogmas, 

OR     RITUALS,      or      BOOKS,     OR     TEMPLES,     OR     FORMS,      ARE      BUT 
SECONDARY    DETAILS. 


[vii] 


PREFACE 


Since  the  dawn  of  history,  various  extraordinary 
phenomena  have  been  recorded  as  happening  amongst 
human  beings.  Witnesses  are  not  wanting  in  modern 
times  to  attest  to  the  fact  of  such  events,  even  in  socie- 
ties living  under  the  full  blaze  of  modern  science.  The 
vast  mass  of  such  evidence  is  unreliable,  as  coming  from 
ignorant,  superstitious,  or  fraudulent  persons.  In  many 
instances  the  so-called  miracles  are  imitations.  But 
what  do  they  imitate  ?  It  is  not  the  sign  of  a  candid 
and  scientific  mind  to  throw  overboard  anything  without 
proper  investigation.  Surface  scientists,  unable  to  ex- 
plain the  various  extraordinary  mental  phenomena, 
strive  to  ignore  their  very  existence.  They  are,  there- 
fore, more  culpable  than  those  who  think  that  their 
prayers  are  answered  by  a  being,  or  beings,  above  the 
clouds,  or  than  those  who  believe  that  their  petitions 
will  make  such  beings  change  the  course  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  latter  have  the  excuse  of  ignorance,  or  at 
least  of  a  false  system  of  education  in  their  childhood, 
which  has  taught  them  tp  depend  upon  such  beings  for 

[ix] 


X  PREFACE. 

help,  and  this  dependence  has  now  become  a  part  of 
their  degenerate  nature.  The  former  have  no  such 
excuse. 

For  thousands  of  years  such  phenomena  have  been 
investigated,  studied,  and  generalised, the  whole  ground 
of  the  religious  faculties  of  man  has  been  analysed,  and 
the  practical  result  is  the  science  of  Rdja  Yoga.  Rdja 
Yoga  does  not,  after  the  unpardonable  manner  of  some 
modern  scientists,  deny  the  existence  of  facts  which  are 
very  difficult  to  explain ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  gently,  yet 
in  no  uncertain  terms,  tells  the  superstitious  that  mira- 
cles and  answers  to  prayers,  and  powers  of  faith,  though 
true  as  facts,  are  not  rendered  comprehensible  through 
the  superstitious  explanation  of  attributing  them  to 
the  agency  of  a  being,  or  beings,  above  the  clouds.  It 
declares  to  mankind  that  each  being  is  only  a  conduit 
for  the  infinite  ocean  of  knowledge  and  power  that  lies 
behind.  It  teaches  that  desires  and  wants  are  in  man, 
that  the  power  of  supply  is  also  in  man;  and  that  wher- 
ever and  whenever  a  desire,  a  want,  a  prayer,  has  been 
fulfilled,  it  was  out  of  this  infinite  magazine  that  the 
supply  came,  and  not  from  any  supernatural  being.  The 
idea  of  supernatural  beings  may  rouse  to  a  certain  extent 
the  power  of  action  in  man,  but  it  also  brings  spiritual 
decay.  It  brings  dependence;  it  brings  fear;  it  brings 
superstition.    It  degenerates  into  a  horrible  belief  in  the 


PREFACE.  xi 

natural  weakness  of  man.  There  is  no  supernatural, 
says  the  Yogt^  but  there  are  in  nature  gross  manifesta- 
tions and  subtle  manifestations.  The  subtle  are  the 
causes,  the  gross  the  effects.  The  gross  can  be  easily- 
perceived  by  the  senses ;  not  so  the  subtle.  The  practice 
of  Rdja  Yoga  will  lead  to  the  acquisition  of  the  more 
subtle  perceptions. 

All  the  orthodox  systems  of  Indian  philosophy  have 
one  goal  in  view,  the  liberation  of  the  soul  through  per- 
fection. The  method  is  by  Yoga.  The  word  Yoga 
covers  an  immense  ground,  but  both  the  Sdnkhya  and 
the  VeddfiHst  Schools  point  to  Yoga  in  some  form  or 
other. 

The  subject  of  the  first  lectures  in  the  present  book 
is  that  form  of  Yoga  known  as  Rdja  Yoga.  The 
aphorisms  of  Patanjali  are  the  highest  authority  and 
text  book  on  Rdja  Yoga.  The  other  philosophers, 
though  occasionally  differing  from  Patanjali  in  some 
philosophical  aspect,  have,  as  a  rule,  acceded  to  his 
method  of  practice  a  decided  consent.  The  first 
part  of  this  book  is  comprised  of  several  lectures  to 
classes  delivered  by  the  present  writer  in  New  York. 
The  second  part  is  a  rather  free  translation  of  the 
aphorisms  (Siitras)  of  Patanjali,  with  a  running  com- 
mentary. Effort  has  been  made  to  avoid  technicalities 
as  far  as  possible,  and  to  keep  to  the  free  and  easy  style 


Xli  PREFACE 

of  conversation.  In  the  first  part  some  simple  and 
specific  directions  are  given  for  the  student  who  wants 
to  practise,  bat  all  such  are  especially  and  earnestly 
reminded  that,  with  few  exceptions.  Yoga  can  only  be 
safely  learned  by  direct  contact  with  a  teacher.  If  these 
conversations  succeed  in  awakening  a  desire  for  further 
information  on  the  subject,  the  teacher  will  not  be 
wanting. 

The  system  of  Pataiijali  is  based  upon  the  system  of 
\.\it.  Sdnkhyas^  the  points  of  difference  being  very  few. 

The  two  most  important  differences  are,  first  that  Pat- 
anjali  admits  a  Personal  God  in  the  form  of  a  first 
teacher,  while  the  only  God  the  Sdnkhyas  admit  is  a 
nearly  perfected  being,  temporarily  in  charge  of  a  cycle. 
Second,  the  Yogis  hold  the  mind  to  be  equally  all-per- 
vading with  the  soul,  or  Furuiay  and  the  Sdnkhyas  do 

not. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS 


RAJA  YOGA. 

Preface       .... 
Chap. 

I.  Introductory        .         .         .       , 

II.  The  First  Steps 

III.  Prana  .... 

IV.  The  Psychic  Prana     . 

V.  The  control  of  Psychic  Prana 
VI.  Pratyahara  and  Dharana  . 
VII.  Dhyana  and  Samdahi 
VIII.  Raja  Yoga  in  brief     . 


PAGE. 

ix 

I 

17 
29 

47 

55 
62 

72 
86 


PATANJALI'S  YOGA  APHORISMS. 
Introduction        ......       97 

I.  Concentration:  its  Spiritual  uses     .         .     104 

II.  "  its  Practice       .         .         .     i47 

[xiii] 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


Chap. 


rAGS. 

III.  The  Chapter  of  Powers      ....     189 

IV.  Independence       ......     207 

Appendix 224 


IMMORTALITY  . 


231 


BHAKTI-YOGA. 
Definition  of  Bhakti  .         .         .         .         .'         .251 

The  Philosophy  of  Isvara    .....  258 
Spiritual    Realisation,    the    Aim    of    Bhakti- 

YoGA 265 

The  Need  of  a  Guru     ......  268 

Qualifications     of     the     Aspirant     and     the 

Teacher     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  271 

Incarnate  Teachers  and  Incarnation          .         .  278 

The  Mantra  :  Om  :  Word  and  Wisdom  .         .         .  282 

Worship  of  Substitutes  and  Images     .         .         .  286 

The  Chosen  Ideal        ......  289 

The  Method  and  the  Means        ....  292 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PARA-BHAKTI  OR  SUPREME  DEVOTION. 


PAGE. 


The  Preparatory  Renunciation  ....  301 
The     Bhakta's     Renunciation     Results     from 

Love 305 

The     Naturalness     of     Bhakti-Yoga     and     Its 
Central  Secret  .         .         .         .         .         .310 

The  Forms  of  Love-manifestation       .         .         .  312 
Universal    Love    and  How   It    leads    to    Self- 
surrender  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -315 

The  Higher   Knowledge  and  the  Higher  Love 

are  one  to  the  True  Lover        ....  320 

The  Triangle  of  Love 322 

The  God  of  Love  is  His  own  Proof      .         .         .  327 
Human    Representations    of    the    Divine    Ideal 

OF  Love      ........  329 

Conclusion 337 

GLOSSARY 341 


RAJA    YOGA 

OR 

Conquering  the  Internal  Nature 


CHAPTER  L 

INTRODUCTORY. 


All  our  knowledge  is  based  upon  experience.  What 
we  call  inferential  knowledge,  in  which  we  go  from  the 
less  general  to  the  more  general,  or  from  the  general  to 
the  particular,  has  experience  as  its  basis.  In  what  are 
called  the  exact  sciences,  people  easily  find  the  truth, 
because  it  appeals  to  the  particular  experiences  of  every 
human  being.  The  scientist  does  not  tell  you  to  believe 
in  anything,  but  he  has  certain  results  which  come  from 
his  own  experiences,  and  reasoning  on  these  experiences, 
when  he  asks  us  to  believe  in  his  conclusions,  he  appeals 
to  some  universal  experience  of  humanity.  In  every 
exact  science  there  is  a  universal  basis  which  is  common 
to  all  humanity,  so  that  we  can  at  once  see  the  truth  or 
the  fallacy  of  the  conclusions  drawn  therefrom.  Now, 
the  question  is,  has  religion  any  such  basis  or  not  ?  I 
shall  have  to  answer  the  question  both  in  the  affirmative 
and  in  the  negative.     Religion,  as  it  is  generally  taught 


2  RAJA   YOGA. 

all  over  the  world,  is  said  to  be  based  upon  faith  and 
belief,  and,  in  most  cases,  consists  only  of  different  sets 
of  theories,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  we  find  all  these 
various  religions  quarrelling  with  each  other.  These 
theories,  again,  are  based  upon  belief.  One  man  says 
there  is  a  great  Being  sitting  above  the  clouds  and 
governing  the  whole  universe,  and  he  asks  me  to  believe 
that,  solely  on  the  authority  of  his  assertion.  In  the 
same  way  I  may  have  my  own  ideas,  which  I  am  asking 
others  to  believe,  and  if  they  ask  a  reason,  I  cannot 
supply  them  with  any.  This  is  why  religion  and  meta- 
physical philosophy  have  a  bad  name  nowadays.  Every 
educated  man  seems  to  say:  "Oh, these  religions  are  only 
bundles  of  theories  without  any  standard  to  judge  them 
by,  each  man  preaching  his  own  pet  ideas."  At  the 
same  time  I  must  tell  you  that  there  is  a  basis  of  uni- 
versal belief  in  religion,  governing  all  these  different 
theories,  and  all  the  varying  ideas  of  different  sects  of 
men  in  different  countries.  Going  to  the  basis  of  them 
we  find  that  they  also  are  based  upon  universal 
experiences. 

In  the  first  place  I  will  ask  you  to  analyse  all  the 
various  religions  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that  these 
are  divided  into  two  classes,  those  with  a  book,  and  those 
without  a  book.  Those  with  a  book  are  the  strongest, 
and  have  the  largest  number  of  followers.  Those  with- 
out books  have  mostly  died  out,  and  the  few  new  ones 
hav^  very  small  followings.  Yet,  in  all  of  them  we 
find  one  consensus  of  opinion,  that  the  truths  they  teach 
are  the  results  of  the  experiences  of  particular  persons. 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

The  Christian  asks  you  to  believe  in  his  religion,  to 
believe  in  Christ,  and  to  believe  in  Him  as  the  incarna- 
tion of  God,  to  believe  in  a  God,  in  a  soul,  and  in  a 
better  state  of  that  soul.  If  I  ask  him  for  reasons  he 
says,  "  No,  it  is  my  belief."  But  if  you  go  to  the 
fountain  head  of  Christianity  you  will  find  that  it  is 
based  upon  experience.  Christ  said  He  saw  God;  the 
disciples  said  they  felt  God ;  and  so  forth.  Similarly,  in 
Buddhism,  it  is  Buddha's  experience  —  He  experienced 
certain  truths,  saw  them,  came  in  contact  with  them, 
and  preached  them  to  the  world.  So  with  the  Hindus  — 
in  their  book  the  writers,  who  are  called  RisMs^  or 
sages,  declare  they  have  experienced  certain  truths,  and 
these  they  preach.  Thus  it  is  clear  that  all  the  religions 
of  the  world  have  been  built  upon  that  one  universal  and 
adamantine  foundation  of  all  our  knowledge  —  direct 
experience.  The  teachers  all  saw  God ;  they  all  saw 
their  own  souls,  they  saw  their  eternity,  they  saw  their 
future,  and  what  they  saw  they  preached.  Only  there 
is  this  difference,  that  in  most  of  these  religions,  espe- 
cially in  modern  times,  a  peculiar  claim  is  put  before 
us,  and  that  claim  is  that  these  experiences  are  impos- 
sible at  the  present  day;  they  were  only  possible  with 
a  few  men,  who  were  the  first  founders  of  the  religions 
that  subsequently  bore  their  names.  At  the  present 
time  these  experiences  have  become  obsolete,  and 
therefore  we  have  now  to  take  religion  on  belief. 
This  I  entirely  deny.  If  there  has  been  one  case  of 
experience  in  this  world  in  any  particular  branch  of 
knowledge  it  absolutely  follows  that  this  experience 


4  RAJA   YOGA. 

has  been  possible  millions  of  times  oefore,  and  will  be 
repeated  eternally.  Uniformity  is  the  rigorous  law  of 
nature;  what  once  happened  can  happen  always. 

The  teachers  of  the  science  of  Voga,  therefore,  declare 
that  religion  is  not  only  based  upon  the  experience  of 
ancient  times,  but  that  no  man  can  be  religious  until  he 
has  the  same  perceptions  himself.  Yoga  is  the  science 
which  teaches  us  how  to  get  these  perceptions.  It  is 
useless  to  talk  about  religion  until  one  has  felt  it.  Why 
is  there  so  much  disturbance,  so  much  fighting  and 
quarrelling  in  the  name  of  God  ?  There  has  been  more 
bloodshed  in  the  name  of  God  than  for  any  other  cause, 
and  the  reason  is  that  people  never  went  to  the  fountain 
head ;  they  were  content  only  to  give  a  mental  assent  to 
the  customs  of  their  forefathers,  and  wanted  others  to 
do  the  same.  What  right  has  a  man  to  say  he  has  a 
soul  if  he  does  not  feel  it,  or  that  there  is  a  God  if  he 
does  not  see  Him  ?  If  there  is  a  God  we  must  see  Him, 
if  there  is  a  soul  we  must  perceive  it;  otherwise  it  is 
better  not  to  believe.  It  is  better  to  be  an  outspoken 
atheist  than  a  hypocrite.  The  modern  idea,  on  the  one 
hand,  with  the  "  learned,"  is  that  religion  and  meta- 
physics, and  all  search  after  a  Supreme  Being,  is  futile; 
on  the  other  hand,  with  the  semi-educated,  the  idea 
seems  to  be  that  these  things  really  have  no  basis,  that 
their  only  value  consists  in  the  fact  that  they  are  strong 
motive  powers  for  doing  good  to  the  world.  If  men 
believe  in  a  God, they  may  become  good,  and  moral,  and 
so  make  good  citizens.  We  cannot  blame  them  for 
holding  such  ideas,  seeing  that  all  the  teaching  these 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

men  get  is  simply  to  believe  in  an  eternal  rigmarole  of 
words,  without  any  substance  behind  them.  They  are 
asked  to  live  upon  words;  can  they  do  it?  If  they 
could,  I  should  not  have  the  least  regard  for  human 
nature.  Man  wants  truth,  wants  to  experience  truth  for 
himself,  to  grasp  it,  to  realise  it,  to  feel  it  within  his 
heart  of  hearts;  then  alone,  declare  the  Vedas,  will  all 
doubts  vanish,  all  darkness  be  scattered,  and  all  crooked- 
ness be  made  straight.  *'  Ye  children  of  immortality, 
even  those  who  live  in  the  highest  sphere,  the  way  is 
found;  there  is  a  way  out  of  all  this  darkness,  and  that 
is  by  perceiving  Him  Who  is  beyond  all  darkness,  and 
there  is  no  other  way.** 

The  science  of  J^a/a  Yoga  proposes  to  put  before 
humanity  a  practical  and  scientifically  worked-out 
method  of  reaching  this  truth.  In  the  first  place,  every 
science  must  have  its  own  method  of  investigation.  If 
you  want  to  become  an  astronomer,  and  sit  down  and 
cry  "Astronomy,  astronomy!"  it  will  never  come  to 
you.  The  same  with  chemistry.  A  certain  method 
must  be  followed.  You  must  go  to  the  laboratory,  take 
the  different  substances,  mix  them  up,  compound  them, 
experiment  with  them,  and  out  of  that  will  come  a 
knowledge  of  chemistry.  If  you  want  to  be  an  astro- 
nomer you  must  go  to  the  observatory,  take  a  telescope, 
study  the  stars  and  planets,  and  then  you  will  become  an 
astronomer.  Each  science  must  have  its  own  methods. 
I  could  preach  you  thousands  of  sermons,  but  they  would 
not  make  you  religious,  until  you  first  practised  the 
method.     These   are   the   truths   of  the  sages  of  all 


6  RAJA   YOGA. 

countries,  of  all  ages,  men  pure  and  unselfish,  who  had 
no  motive  but  to  do  good  to  the  world.  They  all  declare 
that  they  have  found  some  truth  higher  than  that  the 
senses  can  bring  to  us,  and  they  challenge  verification. 
They  say  to  you,  take  up  the  method  and  practise 
honestly,  and  then,  if  you  do  not  find  this  higher  truth, 
you  will  have  the  right  to  say  there  is  no  truth  in  the 
claim,  but  before  you  have  done  that,  you  are  not 
rational  in  denying  the  truth  of  these  assertions.  So  we 
must  work  faithfully,  using  the  prescribed  methods,  and 
light  will  come. 

In  acquiring  knowledge  we  make  use  of  generalisation, 
and  generalisation  is  based  upon  observation.  We  first 
observe  facts,  and  then  we  generalise,  and  then  we  draw 
our  conclusions  or  principles.  The  knowledge  of  the 
mind,  of  the  internal  nature  of  man,  of  thought,  can 
never  be  had  until  we  have  the  power  of  first  observing 
the  facts  that  are  going  on  within.  It  is  very  easy  to 
observe  facts  in  the  external  world,  and  many  thousand 
instruments  have  been  invented  to  observe  every  point 
of  nature,  but  in  the  internal  world  we  find  no  instru- 
ment to  help  us.  Yet  we  know  we  must  observe  in  order 
to  have  a  real  science.  Without  a  proper  analysis,  any 
science  will  be  hopeless,  mere  theorising,  and  that  is 
why  all  the  psychologists  have  been  quarrelling  among 
themselves  since  the  beginning  of  time,  except  those 
few  who  found  out  the  means  of  observation. 

The  science  of  Rdja  Yoga^  in  the  first  place,  proposes 
to  give  men  such  a  means  of  observing  the  internal 
states,  and  the  instrument  is  the  mind  itself.    The  power 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

of  attention  of  mind,  when  properly  guided,  and  directed 
towards  the  internal  world,  will  analyse  the  mind,  and 
illumine  facts  for  us.  The  powers  of  the  mind  are  like 
rays  of  light  being  dissipated ;  when  they  are  concen- 
trated they  illumine  everything.  This  is  the  only  source 
of  knowledge  that  we  have.  Everyone  is  using  it,  both 
in  the  external  and  the  internal  world,  but,  for  the 
psychologist,  this  minute  observation  which  the  scien- 
tific man  can  throw  upon  the  external  world,  will  have 
to  be  thrown  on  the  internal  world,  and  this  requires  a 
great  deal  of  practice.  From  our  childhood  upwards 
we  have  been  taught  only  to  pay  attention  to  things 
external,  never  to  pay  attention  to  things  internal,  and 
most  of  us  have  nearly  lost  the  faculty  of  observing  the 
internal  mechanism.  To  turn  the  mind,  as  it  were, 
inside,  stop  it  from  going  outside,  and  then  to  concen- 
trate all  its  powers,  and  throw  them  upon  the  mind  itself, 
in  order  that  it  may  know  its  own  nature,  analyse  itself, 
is  very  hard  work.  Yet  that  is  the  only  way  to  anything 
which  will  be  a  scientific  approach  to  the  subject. 

What  is  the  use  of  such  knowledge?  In  the  first 
place,  knowledge  itself  is  the  highest  reward  of  knowl- 
edge, and,  in  the  second  place,  there  is  also  utility  in  it. 
It  will  take  away  all  our  misery.  When,  by  analysing 
his  own  mind,  man  comes  face  to  face,  as  it  were,  with 
something  which  is  never  destroyed,  something  which 
is,  by  its  own  nature,  eternally  pure  and  perfect,  he  will 
no  more  be  miserable,  no  more  unhappy.  All  misery 
comes  from  fear,  from  unsatisfied  desire.  Man  will  find 
that  he  never  dies,  and  then  he  will  have  no  more  fear 


8  RAJA   YOGA. 

of  death.  When  he  knows  that  he  is  perfect,  he  will 
have  no  more  vain  desires,  and  both  these  causes  being 
absent,  there  will  be  no  more  misery  —  there  will  be 
perfect  bliss,  even  while  in  this  body. 

There  is  only  one  method  by  which  to  attain  this 
knowledge,  that  which  is  called  concentration.  The 
chemist  in  his  laboratory  concentrates  all  the  energies  of 
his  mind  into  one  focus,  and  throws  them  out  upon  the 
materials  he  is  analysing,  and  so  finds  out  their  secret. 
The  astronomer  concentrates  all  the  energies  of  his 
mind  and  projects  them  through  his  telescope  upon  the 
skies;  and  the  stars,  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  give  up 
their  secrets  to  him.  The  more  I  can  concentrate  my 
thoughts  on  the  matter  on  which  I  am  talking  to  you, 
the  more  light  I  can  throw  upon  it.  You  are  listening 
to  me,  and  the  more  you  concentrate  your  thoughts  the 
more  clearly  you  will  grasp  what  I  have  to  say. 

How  has  all  this  knowledge  in  the  world  been  gained 
but  by  the  concentration  of  the  powers  of  the  mind  ? 
Nature  is  ready  to  give  up  her  secrets  if  we  only  know 
how  to  knock,  to  give  her  the  necessary  blow,  and  the 
strength  and  force  of  the  blow  come  through  concentra- 
tion. There  is  no  limit  to  the  power  of  the  human 
mind.  The  more  concentrated  it  is,  the  more  power 
is  brought  to  bear  on  one  point,  and  that  is  the  secret. 

It  is  easier  to  concentrate  the  mind  on  external  things, 
the  mind  naturally  goes  outwards;  but,  in  the  case  of 
religion,  or  psychology,  or  metaphysics,  the  subject  and 
object  are  one.  The  object  is  internal,  the  mind  itself 
is  the  object,  and  it  is  necessary  to  study  the  mind  itself, 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

mind  studying  mind.  We  know  that  there  is  the  power 
of  the  mind  called  reflective.  I  am  talking  to  you;  at 
the  same  time  I  am  standing  aside,  as  it  were,  a  second 
person,  and  knowing  and  hearing  what  I  am  talking. 
You  work  and  think  at  the  same  time,  anotlier  portion 
of  your  mind  stands  by  and  sees  what  you  are  thinking. 
The  powers  of  the  mind  should  be  concentrated  and 
turned  back  upon  itself,  and  as  the  darkest  places  reveal 
their  secrets  before  the  penetrating  rays  of  the  sun,  so 
will  this  concentrated  mind  penetrate  its  own  innermost 
secrets.  Thus  will  we  come  to  the  basis  of  belief,  the 
real  genuine  religion.  We  will  perceive  for  ourselves 
whether  we  have  souls,  whether  life  is  of  five  minutes, 
or  of  eternity,  whether  there  is  a  God  in  the  universe 
or  none.  It  will  all  be  revealed  to  us.  This  is  what 
Rdja  Yoga  proposes  to  teach.  The  goal  of  all  its  teach- 
ing is  how  to  concentrate  the  mind,  then  how  to  discover 
the  facts  in  our  own  minds,  then  how  to  generalise 
those  facts,  and  form  our  own  conclusions  from  them. 
It  therefore  never  asks  the  question  what  our  religion 
is,  whether  we  are  Deists,  or  Atheists,  whether  Chris- 
tians, Jews,  or  Buddhists.  We  are  human  beings;  that 
is  sufficient.  Every  human  being  has  the  right  and  the 
power  to  seek  for  religion;  every  human  being  has  the 
right  to  ask  the  reason  why,  and  to  have  his  question 
answered  by  himself,  if  he  only  takes  the  trouble. 

So  far,  then,  we  see  that  in  the  study  of  this  Rdja 
Yoga  no  faith  or  belief  is  necessary.  Believe  nothing 
until  you  find  it  out  for  yourself;  that  is  what  it  teaches 
us.     Truth  requires  no  prop  to  make  it  stand.    Do  you 


lO  RAJA   YOGA. 

mean  to  say  that  the  facts  of  our  awakened  state  require 
any  dreams  or  imaginings  to  prove  them?  Certainly 
not.  This  study  of  Raja  Yoga  takes  a  long  time  and 
constant  practice.  A  part  of  this  practice  is  physical, 
but  the  main  part  of  it  is  mental.  As  we  go  along  we 
shall  find  how  intimately  the  mind  is  connected  with 
the  body.  If  we  believe  that  the  mind  is  simply  a  finer 
part  of  the  body,  and  that  mind  acts  upon  the  body,  in 
the  same  way  the  body  must  act  upon  the  mind.  If  the 
body  is  sick,  the  mind  becomes  sick  also.  If  the  body 
is  healthy,  the  mind  remains  healthy  and  strong. 
When  one  is  angry,  the  mind  becomes  disturbed; 
at  the  same  time,  when  the  mind  is  disturbed,  the 
body  also  becomes  disturbed.  With  the  majority 
of  mankind  the  mind  is  entirely  under  the  control  of 
the  body;  the  mind  is  very  little  developed.  The  vast 
mass  of  humanity,  if  you  will  kindly  excuse  me,  is  very 
little  removed  from  the  animals.  Not  only  that,  but, 
in  many  instances,  the  power  of  control  is  very  little 
higher  than  that  of  the  lower  animals.  We  have  very 
little  command  of  our  minds.  Therefore  to  bring  that 
command  about,  to  get  that  control  over  body  and 
mind,  we  must  take  certain  physical  helps,  and  when 
the  body  is  sufficiently  controlled,  we  can  attempt  the 
manipulation  of  the  mind.  By  manipulation  of  the 
mind,  we  shall  be  able  to  bring  it  under  our  control, 
make  it  work  as  we  like,  and  compel  it  to  concentrate 
its  powers  as  we  desire. 

According  to  the  Rdja  Yogi,  all  this  external  world  is 
but  the  gross  form  of  the  internal,  or  subtle.     The  finer 


INTRODUCTORY.  II 

IS  always  the  cause,  and  the  grosser  the  effect.  So  the 
external  world  is  the  effect,  and  the  internal  the  cause. 
In  the  same  way  external  forces  are  simply  the  grosser 
parts,  of  which  the  internal  forces  are  the  finer. 
One  who  has  discovered  and  learned  how  to  manipulate 
the  internal  forces  will  get  the  whole  of  nature  under 
his  control.  The  Vogz  proposes  to  himself  no  less  a 
task  than  to  master  the  whole  universe,  to  control  the 
whole  of  nature.  He  wants  to  arrive  at  the  point 
where  what  we  call  "  nature's  laws  "  will  have  no  influ- 
ence over  him,  where  he  will  be  able  to  get  beyond 
them  all.  He  will  be  master  of  the  whole  of  nature, 
internal  and  external.  The  progress  and  civilisa- 
tion of  the  human  race  is  simply  controlling  this 
nature. 

Various  races  differ  in  their  processes.  Just  as  in 
the  same  society  some  individuals  want  to  control 
external  nature,  and  others  want  to  control  internal 
nature,  so,  among  races,  some  want  to  control  the 
external  nature,  and  some  the  internal.  Some  say 
that  by  controlling  internal  nature  we  control  every- 
thing; some  that  by  controlling  external  nature  we 
control  everything.  Carried  to  the  extreme  both  are 
right,  because  there  is  neither  internal  nor  external. 
It  is  a  fictitious  limitation  that  never  existed.  Both 
are  destined  to  meet  at  the  same  point,  the  external- 
ists and  the  internalists,  when  both  reach  the  extreme 
of  their  knowledge.  Just  as  the  physician,  when  he 
pushes  his  knowledge  to  its  limits,  finds  it  melting 
away  into  metaphysics,  so  the  metaphysician  will  find 


12  RAJA  YOGA. 

that  what  he  calls  mind  and  matter  are  but  apparent 
distinctions,  which  will  have  to  vanish  for  ever. 

The  end  and  aim  of  all  science  is  to  find  a  unit,  that 
One  out  of  which  all  this  manifold  is  being  manufac- 
tured, that  One  existing  as  many.  Rdja  Yoga  pro- 
poses to  start  from  the  internal  world,  to  study  internal 
nature,  and,  through  that,  control  the  whole  —  both 
internal  and  external.  It  is  a  very  old  attempt.  India 
has  been  its  special  stronghold  but  it  was  also  attempted 
by  other  nations.  In  Western  countries  it  is  thought 
to  be  mysticism.  People  who  wanted  to  practise  it 
were  either  burned  or  killed  as  witches  and  sorcerers, 
and  in  India,  for  various  reasons,  it  fell  into  the  hands 
of  persons  who  destroyed  90  per  cent,  of  the  knowl- 
edge, and  of  that  portion  which  remained  tried  to  make 
a  great  secret.  In  modern  times  many  so-called 
teachers  have  arisen  worse  than  those  of  India,  because 
the  latter  knew  something,  while  these  modern  expo- 
nents do  not. 

Anything  that  is  secret  and  mysterious  in  these  sys- 
tems of  Yoga  should  be  at  once  rejected.  The  best 
guide  in  life  is  strength.  In  religion,  as  in  everything 
else,  discard  everything  that  weakens  you,  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  it.  All  mystery-mongering  weakens  the 
human  brain.  Through  it  this  science  of  Yoga  has 
been  well  nigh  destroyed,  but  it  is  really  one  of  the 
grandest  of  sciences.  From  the  time  that  it  was  dis- 
covered, more  than  4000  years  ago,  it  was  perfectly 
delineated  and  formulated  and  preached  in  India,  and 
it  is  a  striking  fact,  that  the  more  modern  the  com- 


INTRODUCTORY.  I3 

mentator,  the  greater  the  mistakes  he  makes.  The 
more  ancient  the  writer  on  it  the  more  rational  he  is. 
Most  of  the  modern  writers  talk  of  all  sorts  of  mystery. 
Thus  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  few  persons  who  made 
it  a  secret,  instead  of  letting  the  full  blaze  of  daylight 
and  reason  fall  upon  it,  and  they  did  so  that  they 
might  have  the  powers  to  themselves. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  no  mystery  in  what  I 
preach.  What  little  I  know  I  will  tell  you.  So  far  as 
I  can  reason  it  out  I  will  do  so,  but  what  I  do  not 
know  I  will  simply  tell  you  tha-t  it  is  what  the  books 
say.  It  is  wrong  to  blindly  believe.  You  must  exer- 
cise your  own  reason  and  judgment;  you  must  prac- 
tise, and  see  whether  these  things  happen  or  not.  Just 
as  you  would  take  up  any  other  science  of  a  material 
nature,  exactly  in  the  same  manner  you  should  take  up 
this  science  for  study.  There  is  neither  mystery  nor 
danger  in  it.  So  far  as  it  is  true  it  ought  to  be 
preached  in  the  public  streets,  in  the  broad  daylight. 
Any  attempt  to  mystify  these  things  is  productive  of 
great  danger. 

Before  proceeding  further,  I  will  state  to  you  a  little 
of  the  Sdnkhya  Philosophy,  upon  which  the  whole  of 
Rdja  Yoga  is  based.  According  to  this  philosophy 
perception  comes  through  instruments,  e.  g.,  the  eyes; 
the  eyes  carry  it  to  the  organs,  the  organs  to  the  mind, 
the  mind  to  the  determinative  faculty,  from  this  the 
Puruia  (the  soul)  receives  it,  and  gives  the  order  back, 
as  it  were,  and  so  on  through  all  these  stages.  In  this 
way  sensations  are  received.    With  the  exception  of  the 


14  RAJA   YOGA. 

Puruia  all  of  these  are  material,  but  the  mind  is  of 
much  finer  material  than  the  external  instruments. 
That  material  of  which  the  mind  is  composed  becomes 
grosser,  and  becomes  what  is  called  the  Tanmdtras 
It  becomes  still  grosser  and  forms  the  external  mate- 
rial. That  is  the  psychology  of  the  Sdtikhya.  So  that, 
between  the  intellect  and  the  grosser  matter  outside 
there  is  only  a  difference  in  degree.  The  Fiirida  is 
the  only  thing  which  is  immaterial.  Mind  is  an  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  the  soul,  as  it  were,  through 
which  the  soul  catches  external  objects.  This  mind  is 
constantly  changing  and  vacillating,  and  it  can  either 
attach  itself  to  several  organs,  or  to  one,  or  to  none. 
For  instance,  if  I  hear  the  clock  with  great  attention  I 
will  not,  perhaps,  see  anything,  although  my  eyes  may 
be  open,  showing  that  the  mind  was  not  attached  to 
the  seeing  organ,  although  it  was  to  the  hearing  organ. 
And  the  mind,  in  the  same  way,  can  be  attached  to  all 
the  organs  simultaneously.  This  mind  nas  the  reflexive 
power  of  looking  back  into  its  own  depths.  This 
reflexive  power  is  what  the  yi?^/ wants  to  attain;  by 
concentrating  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and  turning 
them  inward,  he  seeks  to  know  what  is  happening 
inside.  There  is  in  this  no  question  of  mere  belief;  it 
is  the  analysis  of  certain  philosophers.  Modern  physi- 
ologists tell  you  that  the  eyes  are  not  the  organs  of 
vision,  but  that  the  organs  are  in  the  nerve  centre  in 
the  brain,  and  so  with  all  the  senses;  and  they  also  tell 
you  that  these  centres  are  formed  of  the  same  material 
as  the  brain  itself.     So  the  Sdnkhyas  will  also  tell  you, 


INTRODUCTORY.  1$ 

but  one  is  a  statement  on  the  physical  side,  and  the 
other  on  the  psychological  side;  yet  both  are  the  same. 
Beyond  this  we  have  to  demonstrate. 

The  Vogt  proposes  to  himself  to  attain  to  that  fine 
state  of  perception  in  which  he  can  perceive  all  these 
things.  There  must  be  mental  perception  of  all  the 
different  states.  We  shall  perceive  how  the  sensation  is 
travelling,  and  how  the  mind  is  receiving  it,  how  it  is 
going  to  the  determinative  faculty,  and  how  this  gives 
it  to  the  Purusa.  As  each  science  requires  certain 
preparations,  as  each  science  has  its  own  method,  until 
we  follow  that  method  we  can  never  understand  that 
science;  so  in  Raja    Yoga. 

Certain  regulations  as  to  food  are  necessary;  we 
must  use  that  food  which  brings  us  the  purest  mind. 
If  you  go  into  a  menagerie  you  will  find  this  demon- 
strated at  once.  You  see  the  elephants,  huge  ani- 
mals, but  calm  and  gentle;  and  if  you  go  toward  the 
cages  of  the  lions  and  tigers  you  will  find  them  restless, 
showing  how  much  difference  has  been  produced  by 
food.  All  the  forces  that  are  working  in  this  body 
have  been  produced  out  of  food ;  we  see  that  every 
day.  If  you  begin  to  fast,  first  your  body  will  get 
weak,  the  physical  forces  will  suffer;  then,  after  a  few 
days,  the  mental  forces  will  suffer  also.  First,  memory 
will  fail.  Then  comes  a  point,  when  you  are  not  able 
to  think,  much  less  to  pursue  any  course  of  reasoning. 
We  have,  therefore,  to  take  care  what  sort  of  food  we 
eat  at  the  beginning,  and  when  we  have  got  strength 
enough,  when  our  practice  is  well  advanced,  we  need 


l6  RAJA   YOGA. 

not  be  so  careful  in  this  respect.  While  the  plant  is 
growing  it  must  be  hedged  round,  lest  it  be  injured; 
but  when  it  becomes  a  tree  the  hedges  are  taken  away; 
"t  is  strong  enough  to  withstand  all  assaults. 

A  Vogi  must  avoid  the  two  extremes  of  luxury  and 
austerity.  He  must  not  fast,  or  torture  his  flesh;  he 
who  does  so,  says  the  Gt^d,  cannot  be  a  Vogt;  he  who 
fasts;  he  who  keeps  awake;  he  who  sleeps  much;  he 
who  works  too  much;  he  who  does  no  work;  none  of 
these  can  be  Yo^is, 


CHAPTER   11. 

THE    FIRST    STEPS. 

Raja  Yoga  is  divided  into  eight  steps.  The  first  is 
Yama  —  non-killing,  truthfulness,  non-stealing,  con- 
tinence, and  non-receiving  of  any  gifts.  Next  is 
Niyama  —  cleanliness,  contentment,  mortification, 
study,  and  self-surrender  to  God.  Then  comes  Asana, 
or  posture;  Frdndydma,  or  controlling  the  vital  forces  of 
the  body;  Fratydhdra^  or  making  the  mind  introspec- 
tive; Dhdrand,  or  concentration;  Dhydnd^  or  medita- 
tion; and  Samddhi,  or  super-consciousness.  The  Yama 
and  Niyama^  as  we  see,  are  moral  trainings;  without 
these  as  the  basis  no  practice  of  Yoga  will  succeed.  As 
these  practices  become  established  the  Yogi  will  begin 
to  realise  the  fruits  of  his  practice;  without  these  it 
will  never  bear  fruit.  A  Yogi  must  not  think  of  injur- 
ing anyone,  through  thought,  word  or  deed,  and  this 
applies  not  only  to  man,  but  to  all  animals.  Mercy 
shall  not  be  for  men  alone,  but  shall  go  beyond,  and 
embrace  the  whole  world. 

The  next  step  is  Asana,  posture;  a  series  of  exer- 
cises, physical  and  mental,  is  to  be  gone  through  every 
day,  until  certain  higher  states  are  reached.  There- 
fore it  is  quite  necessary  that  we  should  find  a  posture 
in  which  we  can  remain  long.  That  posture  which  is 
easiest  for  each  one  is  the  posture  to  use.  For  one 
a  [17] 


1 8  rAja  yoga. 

man  it  may  be  very  easy  to  think  in  a  certain  posture, 
but  this  may  be  very  difficult  for  another.  We  will  find 
later  on  that  in  the  study  of  these  psychological  mat- 
ters there  will  be  a  good  deal  of  action  going  on  in  the 
body.  Nerve  currents  will  have  to  be  displaced  and 
given  a  new  channel.  New  sorts  of  vibrations  will 
begin,  the  whole  constitution  will  be  remodelled,  as  it 
were.  But  the  main  part  of  the  action  will  lie  along 
the  spinal  column,  so  that  the  one  thing  necessary  for 
the  posture  is  to  hold  the  spinal  column  free,  sitting 
erect,  holding  the  three  parts  —  the  chest,  neck,  and 
head  —  in  a  straight  line.  Let  the  whole  weight  of 
the  body  be  supported  by  the  ribs,  and  then  you  have 
an  easy  natural  posture,  with  the  spine  straight.  You 
will  naturally  see  that  you  cannot  think  very  high 
thoughts  with  the  chest  in.  This  portion  of  the  Yoga 
is  a  little  similar  to  the  Hatha  Yoga^  which  deals  entirely 
with  the  physical  body;  the  aim  of  the  latter  is  to  make 
the  physical  body  very  strong.  "We  have  notning  to 
do  with  that  here,  because  its  practices  are  very  diffi- 
cult, and  cannot  be  learned  in  a  day,  and,  after  all,  do 
not  lead  to  any  spiritual  growth.  Many  of  these  prac- 
tices you  will  find  in  Delsarte,  and  other  teachers,  such 
as  placing  the  body  in  different  postures,  but  the 
object  in  these  is  physical,  not  psychological.  There 
is  not  one  muscle  in  the  body  over  which  a  man  can- 
not establish  a  perfect  control;  the  heart  can  be  made 
to  stop  or  go  on  at  his  bidding,  and,  in  the  same  way, 
each  part  of  the  organism  can  be  made  to  work  at  his 
bidding. 


THE  FIRST   STEPS.  I9 

The  result  of  this  part  of  Yoga  is  to  make  men  live 
long;  health  is  the  chief  idea,  the  one  goal  of  the 
Hatha  Yogi.  He  is  determined  not  to  fall  sick,  and  he 
never  does.  He  lives  long;  a  hundred  years  is  noth- 
ing to  him  ;  he  is  quite  young  and  fresh  when  he  is  150, 
without  one  hair  turned  grey.  But  that  is  all.  A  Ban- 
yan tree  lives  sometimes  5000  years,  but  it  is  a  Banyan 
tree  and  nothing  more.  So,  if  a  man  lives  long,  he  is 
only  a  healthy  animal.  One  or  two  ordinary  lessons 
of  the  Hatha  Yogis  are  very  useful.  For  instance,  some 
of  you  will  find  it  a  good  thing  for  headaches  to  drink 
cold  water  through  the  nose  as  soon  as  you  get  up; 
the  whole  day  your  brain  will  be  nice  and  cool,  and 
you  will  never  catch  cold.  It  is  very  easy  to  do;  put 
your  nose  into  the  water,  and  make  a  pump  action  in 
the  throat. 

After  one  has  learned  to  have  a  firm  erect  seat,  he 
has  to  perform,  according  to  certain  schools,  a  prac- 
tice called  the  purifying  of  the  nerves.  This  part  has 
been  rejected  by  some  as  not  belonging  to  Raja  Yoga^ 
but  as  so  great  an  authority  as  the  commentator, 
Sankardchdrya^  advises  it,  I  think  it  fit  that  it  should 
be  mentioned,  and  I  will  quote  his  own  directions  from 
his  commentary  to  the  Svctdivatara  Upani§ad.  "  The 
mind  whose  dross  has  been  cleared  away  by  Prdnd- 
ydma^  becomes  fixed  in  Brahman;  therefore  JPrdndydma 
is  pointed  out.  First  the  nerves  are  to  be  purified, 
then  comes  the  power  to  practise  Prdndydma.  Stop- 
ping the  right  nostril  with  the  thumb,  with  the  left 
nostril  fill  in  air,  according  to  one's  capacity;  then, 


20  RAJA  YOGA. 

without  any  interval,  throw  the  air  out  through  the 
right  nostril,  closing  the  left  one.  Again  inhaling 
through  the  right  nostril  eject  through  the  left,  accord- 
ing to  capacity;  practising  this  three  or  five  times  at 
four  intervals  of  the  day,  before  dawn,  during  midday, 
in  the  evening,  and  at  midnight,  in  fifteen  days  or  a 
month  purity  of  the  nerves  is  attained;  then  begins 
Prdndydmay 

Practice  is  absolutely  necessary.  You  may  sit  down 
and  listen  to  me  by  the  hour  every  day,  but,  if  you  do 
not  practise,  you  will  not  get  one  step  further.  It  all 
depends  on  practice.  We  never  understand  these 
things  until  we  experience  them.  We  will  have  to  see 
and  feel  them  for  ourselves.  Simply  listening  to 
explanations  and  theories  will  not  do.  There  are 
several  obstructions  to  practice.  The  first  obstruction 
is  an  unhealthy  body;  if  the  body  is  not  in  a  fit  state, 
the  practice  will  be  obstructed.  Therefore  we  have  to 
keep  the  body  in  good  health;  we  have  to  take  care  of 
what  we  eat  and  drink,  and  what  we  do;  always  use  a 
mental  effort,  what  is  usually  called  "  Christian 
Science,"  to  keep  the  body  strong.  That  is  all;  noth- 
ing further  of  the  body.  We  must  not  forget  that 
health  is  only  a  means  to  an  end.  If  health  were  the 
end  we  would  be  like  animals;  animals  rarely  become 
unhealthy. 

The  second  obstruction  is  doubt;  we  always  feel 
doubtful  about  things  we  do  not  see.  Man  carnnot  live 
upon  words,  however  he  may  try.  So,  doubt  comes  to 
us  as  to  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  these  things  or 


THE    FIRST   STEPS.  21 

not;  even  the  best  of  us  will  doubt  sometimes.  With 
practice,  within  a  few  days,  a  little  glimpse  will  come, 
enough  to  give  you  encouragement  and  hope.  As  one 
commentator  on  Yoga  philosophy  says:  "  When  one 
proof  is  realised,  however  little  it  may  be,  that  will 
give  us  faith  in  the  whole  teachings  of  Yoga."  For 
instance,  after  the  first  few  months  of  training  and 
teaching,  you  will  begin  to  find  you  can  read  another's 
thoughts;  they  will  come  to  you  in  picture  form.  Per- 
haps you  will  hear  something  happening  at  a  long  dis- 
tance, when  you  concentrate  your  mind  and  try  to  do 
so.  These  glimpses  will  come,  just  a  little  bit  at  first, 
but  enough  to  give  you  faith,  and  strength,  and  hope. 
For  instance,  if  you  concentrate  your  thoughts  on  the 
tip  of  your  nose,  in  a  few  days  you  will  begin  to  smell 
most  beautiful  fragrance,  and  that  will  be  enough  to 
show  you  that  there  are  certain  mental  perceptions 
that  can  be  made  obvious  without  the  contact  of  physi- 
cal objects.  But  we  must  always  remember  that  these 
are  only  the  means;  the  aim,  and  end,  and  goal,  of  all 
this  training  is  liberation  of  the  soul.  Absolute  con- 
trol of  nature,  and  nothing  short  of  it,  must  be  the 
goal.  We  must  be  the  masters,  and  not  nature; 
neither  body  nor  mind  must  be  our  master,  and 
neither  must  we  forget  that  the  body  is  mine,  and  not 
I  the  body's. 

A  god  and  a  demon  went  to  learn  about  the  Self 
from  a  great  sage.  They  studied  with  him  for  a  long 
time,  and  at  last  the  sage  told  them,  "  Thou  thyself 
art  the  being  thou  art  seeking."    Both  of  them  thought 


22  RAJA  YOGA. 

that  their  bodies  were  the  Self.  "  We  have  got  every^ 
thing,"  they  said,  and  both  of  them  returned  to  their 
people  and  said,  "  We  have  learned  everything  that  is 
to  be  learned;  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry;  we  are  the 
Self;  there  is  nothing  beyond  us."  The  nature  of  the 
demon  was  ignorant,  clouded,  so  he  never  inquired  any 
further,  but  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  idea  that 
he  was  God,  that  by  the  Self  was  meant  the  body. 
But  the  god  had  a  purer  nature.  He  at  first  committed 
the  mistake  of  thinking,  "  I,  this  body,  am  Brahman^ 
so  keep  it  strong  and  in  health,  and  well-dressed,  and 
give  it  all  sorts  of  bodily  enjoyments."  But,  in  a  few 
days,  he  found  out  that  this  could  not  be  the  meaning 
of  the  sage,  their  master;  there  must  be  something 
higher.  So  he  came  back  and  said,  "  Sir,  did  you 
teach  me  that  this  body  is  the  Self  ?  If  so,  I  see  all 
bodies  die;  the  Self  cannot  die."  The  sage  said, 
*'  Find  it  out;  thou  art  That."  Then  the  god  thought 
that  the  vital  forces  which  work  the  body  were  what 
the  sage  meant.  But,  after  a  time,  he  found  that  if  he 
ate,  these  vital  forces  remained  strong,  but,  if  he 
starved,  they  became  weak.  The  god  then  went  back 
to  the  sage  and  said,  "  Sir,  do  you  mean  that  the  vital 
forces  are  the  Self  ?  "  The  sage  said,  "  Find  out  for 
yourself;  thou  art  That."  The  god  returned  once 
more,  and  thought  that  it  was  the  mind;  perhaps  that 
is  the  Self.  But  in  a  few  days  he  reflected  that  thoughts 
are  so  various;  now  good,  now  bad;  the  mind  is  too 
changeable  to  be  the  Self.  He  went  back  to  the  sage 
and  said,  "  Sir,  I  do  not  think  that  the  mind  is  the 


THE   FIRST   STEPS.  23 

Self;  did  you  mean  that  ?  "  "  No,"  replied  the  sage, 
"  thou  art  That;  find  out  for  yourself."  The  god 
went  back,  and,  at  last,  found  that  he  was  the  Self, 
beyond  all  thought;  One,  without  birth  or  death, 
whom  the  sword  cannot  pierce,  or  the  fire  burn,  whom 
the  air  cannot  dry,  or  the  water  melt,  the  beginning- 
less  and  birthless,  the  immovable,  the  intangible,  the 
omniscient,  the  omnipotent  Being,  and  that  it  was 
neither  the  body  nor  the  mind,  but  beyond  them  all. 
So  he  was  satisfied,  but  the  poor  demon  did  not  get 
the  truth,  owing  to  his  fondness  for  the  body. 

This  world  has  a  good  many  of  these  demoniac 
natures,  but  there  are  some  gods  too.  If  one  propose 
to  teach  any  science  to  increase  the  power  of  sense 
enjoyment,  he  finds  multitudes  ready  for  it.  If  one 
undertake  to  show  mankind  the  supreme  goal,  they 
care  nothing  for  that.  Very  few  have  the  power  to  grasp 
the  highest,  fewer  still  the  patience  to  attain  to  it,  but 
a  few  also  know  that  if  the  body  be  kept  for  a  thousand 
years  the  result  will  be  the  same  in  the  end.  When 
the  forces  that  hold  it  together  go  away  the  body  must 
fall.  No  man  was  ever  born  who  could  stop  his  body 
one  moment  from  changing.  Body  is  the  name  of  a 
series  of  changes.  "As  in  a  river  the  masses  of  water 
are  changing  before  you  every  moment,  and  new  masses 
are  coming,  yet  taking  similar  form,  so  is  it  with  this 
body."  Yet  the  body  must  be  kept  strong  and  healthy; 
it  is  the  best  instrument  we  have. 

This  human  body  is  the  greatest  body  in  the  universe, 
and  a  human  being  the  greatest  being.     Man  is  higher 


24  RAJA   YOGA. 

than  all  animals,  than  all  angels;  none  is  greater  than 
man.  Even  the  Devas  will  have  to  come  down  again 
and  attain  to  salvation  through  a  human  body.  Man 
alone  attains  to  perfection,  not  even  the  devas.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Jews  and  Mohammedans  God  created  man 
after  creating  the  angels  and  everything  else,  and  after 
creating  man  He  asked  the  angels  to  come  and  salute 
him,  and  all  did  except  Iblis;  so  God  cursed  him  and 
he  became  Satan.  Behind  this  allegory  is  the  great 
truth,  that  this  human  birth  is  the  greatest  birth  we 
can  have.  The  lower  creation,  the  animal,  is  dull,  and 
manufactured  mostly  out  of  Tamas.  Animals  cannot 
have  any  high  thoughts;  nor  can  the  angels,  or  Devas, 
attain  to  direct  freedom  without  human  birth.  In 
human  society,  in  the  same  way,  too  much  wealth,  or 
too  much  poverty,  is  a  great  impediment  to  the  higher 
development  of  the  soul.  It  is  from  the  middle  classes 
that  the  great  ones  of  the  world  come.  Here  the 
forces  are  very  equally  adjusted  and  balanced. 

Returning  to  our  subject,  we  come  next  to  Prdndydma^ 
controlling  the  breathing.  What  has  that  to  do  with 
concentrating  the  powers  of  the  mind  ?  Breath  is  like 
the  fly-wheel  of  this  machine.  In  a  big  engine  you  find 
the  fly-wheel  first  moving,  and  that  motion  is  conveyed 
to  finer  and  finer  machinery,  until  the  most  delicate  and 
finest  mechanism  in  the  machine  is  in  motion  in  accord- 
ance. This  breath  is  that  fly-wheel,  supplying  and 
regulating  the  motive  power  to  everything  in  this  body. 

There  was  once  a  minister  to  a  great  king.  He  fell 
into  disgrace,  and  the  king  as  a  punishment,  ordered 


THE    FIRST   STEPS.  2$ 

him  to  be  shut  up  in  the  top  of  a  very  high  tower. 
This  was  done,  and  the  minister  was  left  there  to 
perish.  He  had  a  faithful  wife,  however,  and  at  night 
she  came  to  the  tower  and  called  to  her  husband  at  the 
top  to  know  what  she  could  do  to  help  him.  He  told 
her  to  return  to  the  tower  the  following  night  and  bring 
with  her  a  long  rope,  a  stout  twine,  a  pack  thread,  a 
silken  thread,  a  beetle,  and  a  little  honey.  Wondering 
much,  the  good  wife  obeyed  her  husband,  and  brought 
him  the  desired  articles.  The  husband  directed  her  to 
attach  the  silken  thread  firmly  to  the  beetle,  then  to 
smear  his  horns  with  a  drop  of  honey,  and  to  set  him 
free  on  the  wall  of  the  tower,  with  his  head  pointing 
upwards.  She  obeyed  all  these  instructions,  and  the 
beetle  started  on  his  long  journey.  Smelling  the  honey 
before  him  he  slowly  crept  onwards  and  onwards,  in 
the  hope  of  reaching  it,  until  at  last  he  reached  the 
top  of  the  tower,  when  the  minister  grasped  the  beetle, 
and  got  possession  of  the  silken  thread.  He  told  his 
wife  to  tie  the  other  end  to  the  pack  thread,  and  after 
he  had  drawn  up  the  pack  thread,  he  repeated  the  pro- 
cess with  the  stout  twine,  and  lastly  with  the  rope. 
Then  the  rest  was  easy.  The  minister  descended  from 
the  tower  by  means  of  the  rope,  and  made  his  escape. 
In  this  body  of  ours  the  breath  motion  is  the  "silken 
thread,"  and  laying  hold  of  that,  and  learning  to  control 
it  we  grasp  the  pack  thread  of  the  nerve  currents,  and 
from  these  the  stout  twine  of  our  thoughts,  and  lastly  the 
rope  of  Prdna^  controlling  which  we  reach  freedom. 
We  do  not  know  anything  about  our  own  bodies; 


26  RAJA  YOGA. 

we  cannot  know.  At  best  we  can  take  a  dead  bodjj 
and  cut  it  in  pieces,  and  there  are  some  who  can  take 
a  live  animal  and  cut  it  in  pieces  in  order  to  see  what 
is  inside  the  body.  Still,  that  has  nothing  to  do  with 
our  own  bodies.  We  know  very  little  about  them;  why 
do  we  not?  Because  our  attention  is  not  discrimina- 
ting enough  to  catch  the  very  fine  movements  that  are 
going  on  within.  We  can  know  of  them  only  as  the 
mind,  as  it  were,  enters  the  body,  and  becomes  more 
subtle.  To  get  that  subtle  perception  we  have  to  begin 
with  the  grosser  perceptions,  so  we  have  to  get  hold  of 
that  which  is  setting  the  whole  engine  in  motion,  and 
that  is  the  Prdna^  the  most  obvious  manifestation  of 
which  is  the  breath.  Then,  along  with  the  breath,  we 
will  slowly  enter  the  body,  and  that  will  enable  us  to 
find  out  about  the  subtle  forces,  how  the  nerve  currents 
are  moving  all  over  the  body,  and  as  soon  as  we  per- 
ceive that,  and  learn  to  feel  them,  we  shall  begin  to  get 
control  over  them,  and  over  the  body.  The  mind  is 
also  set  in  motion  by  these  different  nerve  currents,  so, 
at  last,  we  shall  reach  the  state  when  we  have  perfect 
control  over  the  body  and  mind,  making  both  our  serv- 
ants. Knowledge  is  power,  and  we  have  to  get  this 
power,  so  we  must  begin  at  the  beginning,  the  Prdnd- 
ydmd  restraining  the  Prdna.  This  F?'dridydfna  is  a  long 
subject,  and  will  take  several  lessons  to  illustrate  it 
thoroughly.     We  will  take  it  part  by  part. 

We  shall  gradually  see  what  are  the  reasons  for  each 
exercise  and  what  forces  in  the  body  are  set  in  motion. 
All  these  things  will  come  to  us,  but  it  requires  con- 


THE   FIRST   STEPS.  2) 

stant  practice,  and  the  proof  will  come  by  practice. 
No  amount  of  reasoning  which  I  can  give  you  will  be 
proof  to  you,  until  you  have  demostrated  it  for  your 
selves.  As  soon  as  you  begin  to  feel  these  currents  in 
motion  all  over  you,  doubts  will  vanish,  but  it  requires 
hard  practice  every  day.  You  must  practise  at  least 
twnce  every  day,  and  the  best  times  are  towards  the 
morning  and  the  evening.  When  night  passes  into 
day,  and  day  into  night,  it  has  to  pass  through  a  state 
of  relative  calmness.  The  early  morning  and  the  early 
evening  are  the  two  points  of  calmness.  Your  body 
will  have  a  like  tendency  to  become  calm  at  those  times. 
We  will  take  advantage  of  that  natural  condition,  and 
begin  then  to  practise.  Make  it  a  rule  not  to  eat  until 
you  have  practised;  if  you  do  this  the  sheer  force  of 
hunger  will  break  your  laziness.  In  India  they  teach 
children  never  to  eat  until  they  have  practised,  and 
worshipped,  and  it  becomes  natural  to  them  after  a 
time;  a  boy  will  not  feel  hungry  until  he  has  bathed 
and  practised. 

Those  of  you  who  can  afford  it  will  do  better  to  have 
a  room  for  this  practice  alone;  do  not  sleep  in  that 
room,  it  must  be  kept  holy;  you  must  not  enter  the 
room  until  you  have  bathed,  and  are  perfectly  clean  in 
body  and  mind.  Place  flowers  in  that  room  always; 
they  are  the  best  surroundings  for  a  Yogi;  also  pictures 
that  are  pleasing.  Burn  incense  morning  and  evening. 
Have  no  quarrelling,  or  anger,  or  unholy  thought  in 
that  room.  Only  allow  those  persons  to  enter  who  are 
of  the  same  thought  as  you.    Then  by  and  by  there  will 


28  RAJA  YOGA. 

be  an  atmosphere  of  holiness  in  the  room,  and  wheii 
you  are  miserable,  sorrowful,  doubtful,  or  your  mind 
is  disturbed,  the  very  fact  of  entering  that  room  will 
make  you  calmer.  This  was  the  idea  of  the  temple 
and  the  church,  and  in  some  temples  and  churches  you 
will  find  it  even  now,  but  in  the  majority  of  them  the 
very  idea  has  been  lost.  The  idea  is  that  by  keeping 
holy  vibrations  there  the  place  becomes  and  remains 
illumined.  Those  who  cannot  afford  to  have  a  room 
set  apart  can  practise  anywhere  they  like.  Sit  in  a 
straight  posture,  and  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  send  a 
current  of  holy  thought  to  all  creation;  mentally 
repeat:  "  Let  all  beings  be  happy;  let  all  beings  be 
peaceful;  let  all  beings  be  blissful."  So  do  to  the 
East,  South,  North  and  West.  The  more  you  do  that 
the  better  you  will  feel  yourself.  You  will  find  at  last 
that  the  easiest  way  to  make  yourselves  healthy  is  to 
see  that  others  are  healthy,  and  the  easiest  way  to 
make  yourselves  happy  is  to  see  that  others  are  happy. 
After  doing  that,  those  who  believe  in  God  should 
pray  —  not  for  money,  not  for  health,  nor  for  heaven; 
pray  for  knowledge  and  light;  every  other  prayer  is 
selfish.  Then  the  next  thing  to  do  is  to  think  of  your 
own  body,  and  see  that  it  is  strong  and  healthy;  it  is 
the  best  instrument  you  have.  Think  of  it  as  being  as 
strong  as  adamant,  and  that  with  the  help  of  this  body 
you  will  cross  this  ocean  of  life.  Freedom  is  never  to 
be  reached  by  the  weak ;  throw  away  all  weakness ;  tell 
your  body  that  it  is  strong;  tell  your  mind  that  it  is 
strong,  and  have  unbounded  faith  and  hope  in  yourself. 


CHAPTER    III. 

PRANA. 

pRANAYAMA  IS  not,  as  many  think,  something  about 
the  breath;  breath,  indeed,  has  very  Httle  to  do  with 
it,  if  anything.  Breathing  is  only  one  of  the  many 
exercises  through  which  we  get  to  the  real  Prdndydma. 
Frdndydma  means  the  control  of  Prdna.  According 
to  the  philosophers  of  India,  the  whole  universe  is  com- 
posed of  two  materials,  one  of  which  they  call  Akdia. 
It  is  the  omnipresent,  all  penetrating  existence.  Every- 
thing that  has  form,  everything  that  is  the  result  of 
compounds,  is  evolved  out  of  this  Akdsa.  It  is  the 
Akdsa  that  becomes  the  air,  that  becomes  the  liquids, 
that  becomes  the  solids;  it  is  the  Akdsa  that  becomes 
the  sun,  the  earth,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  comets;  it 
is  the  Akdsa  that  becomes  the  body,  the  animal  body, 
the  plants,  every  form  that  we  see,  everything  that  can 
be  sensed,  everything  that  exists.  It  itself  cannot  be 
perceived;  it  is  so  subtle  that  it  is  beyond  all  ordinary 
perception;  it  can  only  be  seen  when  it  has  become 
gross,  has  taken  form.  At  the  beginning  of  creation 
there  is  only  this  Akdia;  at  the  end  of  the  cycle  the 
solids,  the  liquids,  and  the  gases  all  melt  into  the  Akdia 
again,  and  the  next  creation  similarly  proceeds  out  of 
this  Akdia. 

[29] 


30  ,  RAJA   YOGA. 

By  what  power  is  this  Akdia  manufactured  into  this 
universe?  By  the  power  of  Frdna.  Just  as  Akdia  is 
the  infinite  omnipresent  material  of  this  universe,  so  is 
this  Prdna  the  infinite,  omnipresent  manifesting  power 
of  this  universe.  At  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of 
a  cycle  everything  becomes  Akdia,  and  all  the  forces 
that  are  in  the  universe  resolve  back  into  the  Prdna; 
in  the  next  cycle,  out  of  this  Prdna  is  evolved  every- 
thing that  we  call  energy,  everything  that  we  call  force. 
It  is  the  Prdna  that  is  manifesting  as  motion;  it  is  the 
Prdna  that  is  manifesting  as  gravitation,  as  magnetism. 
It  is  the  Prdna  that  is  manifesting  as  the  actions  of  the 
body,  as  the  nerve  currents,  as  thought  force.  From 
thought,  down  to  the  lowest  physical  force,  everything 
is  but  the  manifestation  of  Prd?ia.  The  sum-total  of 
all  force  in  the  universe,  mental  or  physical,  when 
resolved  back  to  its  original  state,  is  called  Prdna. 
**  When  there  was  neither  aught  nor  naught,  when 
darkness  was  covering  darkness,  what  existed  then? 
That  Akdia  existed  without  motion."  The  physical 
motion  of  the  Prdna  was  stopped,  but  it  existed  all  the 
same.  All  the  energies  that  are  now  displayed  in  the 
universe  we  know,  by  modern  science,  are  unchange- 
able. The  sum-total  of  the  energies  in  the  universe 
remains  the  same  throughout,  only,  at  the  end  of  a 
cycle,  these  energies  quiet  down,  become  potential, 
and,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  cycle,  they  start  up, 
strike  upon  the  Akdia,  and  out  of  the  Akdia  evolve 
these  various  forms,  and,  as  the  Akdia  changes,  this 
Prdna  changes  also  into  all  these  manifestations   of 


PR  ANA.  31 

energy.     The  knowledge  and  control  of  this  Prdna  is 
really  what  is  meant  by  Prdndydma. 

This  opens  to  us  the  door  to  almost  unlimited  power. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  one  understood  the  Prdna  per- 
fectly, and  could  control  it,  what  power  on  earth  could 
there  be  that  would  not  be  his?  He  would  be  able  to 
move  the  sun  and  stars  out  of  their  places,  to  control 
everything  in  the  universe,  from  the  atoms  to  the  big- 
gest suns,  because  he  would  control  the  Prdna.  This 
is  the  end  and  aim  of  Prdndydma.  When  the  Yogi 
becomes  perfect  there  will  be  nothing  in  nature  not 
under  his  control.  If  he  orders  the  gods  to  come, 
they  will  come  at  his  bidding;  if  he  asks  the  departed 
to  come,  they  will  come  at  his  bidding.  All  the  forces 
of  nature  will  obey  him  as  his  slaves,  and  when  the 
ignorant  see  these  powers  of  the  Yogi  they  call  them 
miracles.  One  peculiarity  of  the  Hindu  mind  is  that 
it  always  inquires  for  the  last  possible  generalisation, 
leaving  the  details  to  be  worked  out  afterwards.  The 
question  is  raised  in  the  Vcdas^  "  What  is  that,  knowing 
which  we  shall  know  everything?"  Thus,  all  books, 
and  all  philosophies  that  have  been  written,  have  been 
only  to  prove  TAa^  by  knowing  which  everything  is 
known.  If  a  man  wants  to  know  this  universe  bit  by 
bit  he  must  know  every  individual  grain  of  sand,  and 
that  means  infinite  time  for  him;  he  cannot  know  all 
of  them.  Then  how  can  knowledge  be?  How  is  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  be  all-knowing  through  particu- 
lars? The  Yogis  say  that  behind  this  particular  mani- 
festation there  is  a  generalisation.    Behind  all  particular 


32  RAJA  YOGA. 

ideas  stands  a  generalised,  an  abstract  principle;  grasp 
it,  and  you  have  grasped  everything.  Just  as  this 
whole  universe  has  been  generalised,  in  the  Vedas^  into 
that  One  Absolute  Existence.  He  who  has  grasped 
that  Existence  has  grasped  the  whole  universe.  So  all 
forces  have  been  generalised  into  this  Prdna^  and  he 
who  has  grasped  the  Prdna  has  grasped  all  the  forces 
of  the  universe,  mental  or  physical.  He  who  has  con- 
trolled the  Prdna  has  controlled  his  own  mind,  and  all 
the  minds  that  exist.  He  who  has  controlled  the 
Prdna  has  controlled  his  body,  and  all  the  bodies  that 
exist,  because  the  Prdna  is  the  generalised  manifesta- 
tion of  force. 

How  to  control  the  PrdTia  is  the  one  idea  of  Prdnd- 
ydma.  All  these  trainings  and  exercises  are  for  that 
one  end,  and  each  man  must  begin  where  he  stands, 
must  learn  how  to  control  the  things  that  are  nearest 
to  him.  This  body  is  the  nearest  thing  to  us,  nearer 
than  anything  in  the  universe,  and  this  mind  is  the 
nearest  of  all.  The  Prdna  which  is  working  this  mind 
and  body  is  the  nearest  to  us  of  all  the  Prdna  in  the 
universe.  This  little  wave  of  the  Prdna  which  repre- 
sents our  own  energies,  mental  and  physical,  is  the 
nearest  wave  to  us  of  all  that  infinite  ocean  of  Prdna^ 
and  if  we  can  succeed  in  controlling  that  little  wave, 
then  alone  we  can  hope  to  control  the  whole  of  Prdna. 
Perfection  is  to  be  gained  by  the  Yogi  who  has  done 
this,  and  no  power  is  any  more  his  master.  He  has 
become  almost  almighty,  almost  all-knowing.  We 
see  sects  in  every  country  who  have  attempted    this 


PRANA.  33 

control  of  Prdna.  In  this  country  there  are  Mind- 
healers,  Faith-healers,  Spiritualists,  Christian  Scien- 
tists, Hypnotists,  etc.,  and  if  we  analyse  these  different 
groups  we  shall  find  that  the  background  of  each  is  this 
control  of  the  Prd^ia^  whether  they  know  it  or  not.  If 
you  boil  all  their  theories  down  the  residuum  will  be 
the  same.  It  is  the  one  and  same  force  they  are  man- 
ipulating, only  unknowingly.  They  have  stumbled  on 
the  discovery  of  a  force,  and  do  not  know  its  nature, 
but  they  are  unconsciously  using  the  same  powers  which 
the  Yogi  uses,  and  which  come  from  Prdna. 

This  Prdna  is  the  vital  force  in  every  being,  and  the 
finest  and  highest  action  of  Prdna  is  thought.  This 
thought,  again,  as  we  see,  is  not  all.  There  is  also  a 
sort  of  thought  which  we  call  instinct,  or  unconscious 
thought,  the  lowest  plane  of  action.  If  a  mosquito 
stings  us,  without  thinking,  our  hand  will  strike  it, 
automatically,  instinctively.  This  is  one  expression  of 
thought.  All  reflex  actions  of  the  body  belong  to  this 
plane  of  thought.  There  is  then  a  still  higher  plane  of 
thought,  the  conscious.  I  reason,  I  judge,  I  think,  I 
see  Xht. pros  and  cons  oi  certain  things;  yet  that  is  not 
all.  We  know  that  reason  is  limited.  There  is  only  a 
certain  extent  to  which  reason  can  go;  beyond  that  it 
cannot  reach.  The  circle  within  which  it  runs  is  very, 
very  limited  indeed.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  we  find 
facts  rush  into  this  circle.  Like  the  coming  of  comets 
certain  things  are  coming  into  this  circle,  and  it  is  cer- 
tain they  come  from  outside  the  limit,  although 
our  reason  cannot  go  beyond.     The  causes  of  the  phe^ 


34  rAja  yoga. 

nomena  protruding  themselves  in  this  small  limit  are 
outside  of  this  limit.      The  reason  and  the   intellect 
cannot  reach  them,  but,  says  the  Yogi^  that  is  not  all 
The  mind  can  exist  on  a  still  higher  plane,  the  super 
conscious.     When  the  mind  has  attained  to  that  state 
which  is  called  Samddhi^ — perfect  concentration,  super 
consciousness  —  it  goes  beyond  the  limits  of  reason 
and  comes  face  to  face  with  facts  which  no  instinct  or 
reason  can  ever  know.     All  these  manipulations  of  the 
subtle  forces  of  the  body,  the  different  manifestations 
of  Prdna^  if  trained,  give  a  push  to  the  mind,  and  the 
mind  goes  up  higher,   and  becomes  super-conscious, 
and  from  that  plane  it  acts. 

In  this  universe  there  is  one  continuous  mass  on 
every  plane  of  existence.  Physically  this  universe  is 
one;  there  is  no  difference  between  the  sun  and  you. 
The  scientist  will  tell  you  it  is  only  a  fiction  to  say  the 
contrary.  There  is  no  real  difference  between  the 
table  and  me;  the  table  is  one  point  in  the  mass  of 
matter,  and  I  another  point.  Each  form  represent?, 
as  it  were,  one  whirlpool  in  the  infinite  ocean  of  mat- 
ter, and  these  are  not  constant.  Just  as  in  a  rushing 
stream  there  may  be  millions  of  whirlpools,  and  the 
water  in  each  of  these  whirlpools  is  fresh  every 
moment,  turning  round  and  round  for  a  few  seconds, 
and  then  passing  out  at  the  other  end,  and  fresh  par- 
ticles of  water  coming  in,  so  this  whole  universe  is  one 
constantly  changing  mass  of  matter,  in  which  we  are 
little  whirlpools.  A  mass  of  matter  enters  them,  goes 
round  and  round,  and  turns,  for  a  few  years,  into  the 


pnANA.  35 

body  of  a  man,  becomes  changed,  and  gets  whirled  out 
in  the  form  of,  maybe,  an  animal,  from  that  it  rushes 
round  to  get,  after  a  few  years,  into  another  whirlpool, 
called  a  lump  of  mineral.  It  is  a  constant  change. 
Not  one  body  is  constant.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
my  body,  or  your  body,  except  in  words.  It  is  one 
huge  mass  of  matter.  One  point  is  called  moon, 
another  sun,  another  a  man,  another  the  earth,  another 
a  plant,  another  a  mineral.  Not  one  is  constant,  but 
everything  is  changing,  matter  eternally  concreting 
and  disintregating.  So  it  is  with  the  mind.  Matter  is 
represented  by  the  ether;  when  the  action  of  Prdna  is 
most  subtle,  this  very  ether,  in  the  finer  state  of  vibra- 
tion, will  represent  the  mind,  and  there  it  will  be  still 
one  unbroken  mass.  If  you  can  get  to  simply  that 
subtle  vibration  you  will  see  and  feel  that  the  whole 
universe  is  composed  of  these  subtle  vibrations.  Some- 
times certain  drugs  have  the  power  to  take  us,  as  it 
were,  through  our  senses,  and  bring  us  to  that  condi- 
tion. Many  of  you  may  remember  the  celebrated  experi- 
ment of  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  when  the  laughing  gas 
overpowered  him,  and,  during  the  lecture,  he  remained 
motionless,  stupefied,  and,  after  that,  he  said  that  the 
whole  universe  was  made  up  of  ideas;  for  the  time 
being,  as  it  were,  the  gross  vibrations  had  ceased,  and 
only  the  subtle  vibrations,  which  he  called  the  mind, 
were  present  to  him.  He  could  only  see  the  subtle 
vibrations  round  him ;  everything  had  become  thought; 
the  whole  universe  was  an  ocean  of  thought,  he  and 
everyone  else  had  become  little  thought  whirlpools. 


36  rAja  yoga. 

Thus,  even  in  the  universe  of  thought  we  find  this 
unity,  and  at  last,  when  we  get  to  the  Self,  we  know 
that  that  Self  can  only  be  One.  Beyond  motion  there 
is  but  One.  Even  in  manifest  motion  there  is  only  a 
unity.  These  facts  can  no  more  be  denied,  as  modern 
science  has  demonstrated  them.  Modern  physics  also 
has  demonstrated  that  the  sum-total  of  the  energies  in 
the  universe  is  the  same  throughout.  It  has  also  been 
proved  that  this  sum-total  of  energy  exists  in  two 
forms.  It  becomes  potential,  toned  down,  and  calmed, 
and  next  it  comes  out  manifested  as  all  these  various 
forces;  again  it  goes  back  to  the  quiet  state,  and  again 
it  manifests.  Thus  it  goes  on  evolving  and  involving 
through  eternity.  The  control  of  this  Prdna^  as  before 
stated,  is  what  is  called  Prdndydma. 

This  Prdndydma  has  very  little  to  do  with  breathing, 
except  as  exercise.  The  most  obvious  manifestation 
of  this  Prdna  in  the  human  body  is  the  motion  of  the 
lungs.  If  that  stops,  the  body  will  stop;  all  the  other 
manifestations  of  force  in  the  body  will  immediately 
stop,  if  this  is  stopped.  There  are  persons  who  can 
train  themselves  in  such  a  manner  that  the  body  will 
live  on,  even  when  this  motion  has  stopped.  There 
are  some  persons  who  can  bury  themselves  for  months 
and  yet  live,  without  breathing.  But,  for  all  ordinary 
persons,  this  is  the  principal  gross  motion  in  the  body. 
To  reach  the  more  subtle  we  must  take  the  help  of  the 
grosser,  and  so,  slowly  travel  towards  the  most  subtle, 
until  we  gain  our  point.  The  most  obvious  of  all 
motions  in  the  body  is  the  motion  of  the  lungs,  the  fly- 


PRANA.  37 

wheel  which  is  setting  the  other  forces  in  motion. 
Prdtidydtna  really  means  controlling  this  motion  of  the 
lungs,  and  this  motion  is  associated  with  the  breath. 
Not  that  breath  is  producing  it;  on  the  contrary  //  is 
producing  breath.  This  motion  draws  in  the  air  by 
pump  action.  The  Prdna  is  moving  the  lungs,  and 
that  motion  of  the  lungs,  draws  in  the  air.  So  Frdnd' 
ydma  is  not  breathing,  but  controlling  that  muscular 
power  which  moves  the  lungs,  and  that  muscular  power 
which  is  going  out  through  the  nerves  to  the  muscles, 
from  them  to  the  lungs,  making  them  move  in  a  certain 
manner,  is  the  Prdna^  which  we  have  to  control  in  the 
practice  of  Frdndydma.  When  this  Frdna  has  become 
controlled,  then  we  shall  immediately  find  that  all  the 
other  actions  of  the  Prdna  in  the  body  will  slowly  come 
under  control.  I  myself  have  seen  men  who  have  con- 
trolled almost  every  muscle  of  the  body;  and  why  not  ? 
If  I  have  control  over  certain  muscles,  why  not  over 
every  muscle  and  nerve  of  the  body  ?  What  impossi- 
bility is  there  ?  At  present  the  control  is  lost,  and  the 
motion  has  become  automatic.  We  cannot  move  the 
ears  at  will,  but  we  know  that  animals  can.  We  have 
not  that  power  because  we  do  not  exercise  it.  This  is 
what  is  called  atavism. 

Again,  we  know  that  motion  which  has  become  latent 
can  be  brought  back  to  manifestation.  By  hard  work 
and  practice  certain  motions  of  the  body  which  are 
most  dormant  can  be  brought  back  under  perfect  con- 
trol. Reasoning  in  that  way  we  find  there  is  no 
impossibility,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  every  probability 


38  rAja  yoga. 

that  each  part  of  the  body  can  be  brought  under  per 
feet  control.  This  the  Yogi  does  through  Frdndydma. 
Perhaps  some  of  you  have  read  in  these  books  that  in 
Frdndydma^  when  drawing  in  the  breath,  you  must  fill 
your  whole  body  with  Frdna.  In  the  English  transla- 
tions Frdna  is  given  as  breath,  and  you  are  inclined  to 
ask  how  that  is  to  be  done.  The  fault  is  with  the 
translator.  Every  part  of  the  body  can  be  filled  with 
Frdna.  this  vital  force,  and  when  you  are  able  to  do 
that,  you  can  control  the  whole  body.  All  the  sick- 
ness and  misery  felt  in  the  body  v/ill  be  perfectly  con- 
trolled, and,  not  only  so,  you  will  be  able  to  control 
another's  body.  Everything  is  infectious  in  this  world, 
good  or  bad.  If  your  body  be  in  a  certain  state  of 
tension,  it  will  have  a  tendency  to  produce  the  same 
tension  in  others.  If  you  are  strong  and  healthy,  those 
that  live  near  you  will  also  have  the  tendency  to  be- 
come strong  and  healthy,  but,  if  you  are  sick  and  weak, 
those  around  you  will  have  the  tendency  to  become 
the  same.  This  vibration  will  be,  as  it  were,  conveyed 
to  another  body.  In  the  case  of  one  man  trying  to 
heal  another,  the  first  idea  is  simply  transferring  his 
own  health  to  the  other.  This  is  the  prim.itive  sort  of 
healing.  Consciously,  or  unconsciously  health  can  be 
transmitted.  The  very  strong  man,  living  with  the 
weak  man,  will  make  him  a  little  stronger,  whether  he 
knows  it  or  not.  When  consciously  done  it  becomes 
quicker  and  better  in  its  action.  Next  come  those 
cases  in  which  a  man  may  not  be  very  healthy  himself, 
yet  we  know  that  he  can  bring  health  to  another.    The 


prAna.  39 

first  man,  in  suc'ri  a  case,  has  a  little  more  control  over 
the  Prd?ia^  and  can  rouse,  for  the  time  being,  his  Prdi}a^ 
as  it  were,  to  a  certain  state  of  vibration,  and  transmit 
it  to  another  person. 

There  have  been  cases  where  this  process  has  been 
carried  on  at  a  distance,  but  in  reality  there  is  no  dis- 
tance, in  the  sense  of  a  break.  Where  is  the  distance 
that  has  a  break  ?  Is  there  any  break  between  you  and 
the  sun  ?  It  is  a  continuous  mass  of  matter,  the  sun 
the  one  part,  and  you  the  other.  Is  there  a  break 
between  one  part  of  a  river  and  another  ?  Then  why 
cannot  any  force  travel  ?  There  is  no  reason  against 
it.  These  cases  are  perfectly  true,  and  this  Prdna  can 
be  transmitted  to  a  very  great  distance;  but  to  one 
genuine  case,  there  are  hundreds  of  frauds.  It  is  not 
so  easy  as  it  is  thought  to  be.  In  the  most  ordinary 
cases  of  this  healing  you  will  find  that  these  healers 
are  simply  taking  advantage  of  the  naturally  healthy 
state  of  the  human  body.  There  is  no  disease  in  this 
world  which  kills  the  majority  of  persons  attacked. 
Even  in  cholera  epidemics,  if  for  a  few  days  sixty  per 
cent,  die,  after  that  the  rate  comes  down  to  thirty  and 
twenty  per  cent,  and  the  rest  recover.  An  allopath 
comes  and  treats  cholera  patients,  and  gives  them  his 
medicines;  the  homoeopath  comes  and  gives  his  medi- 
cine, and  cures  perhaps  more,  simply  because  the 
homoeopath  did  not  disturb  the  patients,  but  allowed 
nature  to  deal  with  them;  and  the  faith-healer  will 
cure  more  still,  because  he  will  bring  the  strength  of 


40  RAJA   YOGA. 

his  mind  to  bear,  and  rouses,  through  faith,  the  dor^ 
mant  Prdna  of  the  patient. 

But  there  is  a  mistake  constantly  made  by  falth- 
healers;  they  think  that  it  is  faith  itself  that  directly 
heals  a  man.  It  alone  will  not  cover  all  the  ground. 
There  are  diseases  where  the  worst  symptoms  are  that 
the  patient  never  thinks  that  he  has  that  disease.  That 
tremendous  faith  of  the  patient  is  itself  one  symptom 
of  the  disease,  and  usually  indicates  that  he  will  die 
quickly.  In  such  cases  the  principle  that  faith  cures 
does  not  apply.  If  it  were  faith  that  cured  in  all  these 
cases,  these  patients  also  would  be  cured.  It  is  by 
this  Prdna  that  real  curing  comes.  The  pure  man, 
who  has  controlled  this  Prdna,  has  the  power  of  bring- 
ing it  into  a  certain  state  of  vibration,  which  can  be 
conveyed  to  others,  arousing  in  them  a  similar  vibra- 
tion. You  see  that  in  every-day  actions.  I  am  talk- 
ing to  you.  What  am  I  trying  to  do  ?  I  am,  so  to 
say,  bringing  my  mind  to  a  certain  state  of  vibration, 
and  the  more  I  succeed  in  bringing  it  to  that  state,  the 
more  you  will  be  affected  by  w^hat  I  say.  All  of  you 
know  that  the  day  I  am  more  enthusiastic  the  more  you 
enjoy  the  lecture,  and  when  I  am  less  enthusiastic  you 
feel  lack  of  interest. 

The  gigantic  will  powers  of  the  world,  the  world- 
movers,  can  bring  their  Prdna  into  a  high  state  of 
vibration,  and  it  is  so  great  and  powerful  that  it  catches 
others  in  a  moment,  and  thousands  are  drawn  towards 
them,  and  half  the  world  thinks  as  they  do.  Great 
prophets  of  the  world  had  the  most  wonderful  control 


PRANA.  41 

of  this  FrdmZy  which  gave  them  tremendous  will  power; 
they  had  brought  their  Prdna  to  the  highest  state  of 
motion,  and  this  is  what  gave  them  power  to  sway  the 
world.  All  manifestations  of  power  arise  from  this 
control.  Men  may  not  know  the  secret,  but  this  is 
the  one  explanation.  Sometimes  in  your  own  body  the 
supply  of  Prdna  gravitates  more  or  less  to  one  part; 
the  balance  is  disturbed,  and  when  the  balance  of 
Prdna  is  disturbed,  what  we  call  disease  is  produced. 
To  take  away  the  superfluous  Prdna^  or  to  supply  the 
Prdna  that  is  wanting,  will  be  curing  the  disease.  That 
again  is  Prdndydma,  to  learn  when  there  is  more  or  less 
Prdna  in  one  part  of  the  body  than  there  should  be. 
The  feelings  will  become  so  subtle  that  the  mind  will 
feel  that  there  is  less  Prdna  in  the  toe  or  the  finger 
than  there  should  be,  and  possess  the  power  to  supply 
it.  These  are  among  the  various  functions  of  Prdnd- 
ydma.  They  have  to  be  learned  slowly  and  gradually, 
and,  as  you  see,  the  whole  scope  of  Rdja  Yoga  is  really 
to  teach  the  control  and  direction  in  different  planes  of 
the  Prdfia.  When  a  man  has  concentrated  his  energies 
he  masters  the  Prdna  that  is  in  his  body.  When  a  man 
is  meditating,  he  is  also  concentrating  the  Prdna. 

In  an  ocean  there  are  huge  waves,  like  mountains, 
then  smaller  waves,  and  still  smaller,  down  to  little 
bubbles,  but  the  background  of  all  these  is  the  infinite 
ocean.  The  bubble  is  connected  with  the  infinite 
ocean  at  one  end,  and  the  huge  wave  at  the  other  end. 
So,  one  may  be  a  gigantic  man,  and  another  a  little 
bubble,  but  each  is  connected  with  that  infinite  ocean 


42  RAJA   YOGA. 

of  energy,  and  this  is  the  common  birthright  of  every 
animal  that  exists.  Wherever  there  is  life,  the  store- 
house of  infinite  energy  is  behind  it.  Starting  from 
some  funguSj,  some  very  minute,  microscopic  bubble, 
and  all  the  time  drawing  from  that  infinite  storehouse 
of  energy,  the  form  is  changed  slowly  and  slowly,  until, 
in  course  of  time  it  becomes  a  plant,  then  an  animal, 
then  man,  ultimately  God.  This  is  attained  through 
millions  of  aeons,  but  what  is  time  ?  An  increase  of 
speed,  an  increase  of  struggle,  is  able  to  bridge  the 
distance  of  time.  That  which  naturally  takes  a  long 
time  to  accomplish  can  be  shortened  by  the  intensity 
of  the  action,  says  the  Vogt.  A  man  may  go  on  slowly 
drawing  in  this  energy  from  the  infinite  mass  that  exists 
in  the  universe,  and  perhaps  he  will  require  a  hundred 
thousand  years  to  become  a  Deva,  and  then,  perhaps, 
five  hundred  thousand  years  to  become  still  higher, 
and  perhaps  five  millions  of  years  to  become  perfect. 
Given  rapid  growth  the  time  will  be  lessened.  Why  is 
it  not  possible,  with  sufficient  effort,  to  reach  this  very 
perfection  in  six  months  or  six  years  ?  There  is  no 
limit.  Reason  shows  that.  If  an  engine,  with  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  coal,  runs  at  two  miles  an  hour,  add 
more  coal,  and  it  will  run  in  quicker  time.  Similarly 
why  shall  not  the  soul,  by  intensifying  its  action,  attain 
to  that  goal  in  this  very  life  ?  All  beings  will  at  last 
attain  to  that  perfection  we  know.  But  who  cares  to 
wait  all  these  millions  of  aeons  ?  Why  not  reach  it 
immediately,  in  this  body  even,  in  this  human  form  ? 


PRANA.  43 

Why  shall  I  not  get  that  infinite  knowledge,  infinite 
power  now  ? 

That  is  the  ideal  of  the  Yogi ;  the  whole  science  of 
Yoga  is  directed  to  that  one  end,  to  teach  men  how  to 
shorten  the  time  by  adding  power,  how  to  intensify  the 
power  of  assimilation,  and  thereby  shorten  the  time 
for  reaching  perfection,  instead  of  slowly  advancing 
from  point  to  point,  and  waiting  until  the  whole  human 
race  has  come  out,  and  become  perfect.  All  the  great 
prophets,  saints,  and  seers,  of  the  world,  what  are 
they  ?  In  that  one  span  of  life  they  lived  the  whole 
life  of  humanity,  bridged  the  whole  length  of  time  that 
it  will  take  ordinary  humanity  to  come  to  the  state  of 
perfection.  In  this  life  they  perfect  themselves;  they 
have  no  thought  for  anything  else,  breathe  for  nothing 
else,  never  live  a  moment  for  any  other  idea,  and  thus 
the  way  is  shortened  for  them.  This  is  what  is  meant 
by  concentration,  intensifying  the  action  or  assimila- 
tion, and  thus  shortening  the  time;  and  J^dja  Yoga  is 
the  science  which  teaches  us  how  to  gain  the  power  of 
concentration. 

What  has  this  Frdndydma  to  do  with  spiritualism  ? 
That  is  also  a  manifestation  of  Frdndydma.  If  it  be 
true  that  the  departed  spirits  exist,  only  that  we  can- 
not see  them,  it  is  quite  probable  that  there  may  be 
hundreds  and  millions  living  here  that  we  can  neither 
see,  feel,  nor  touch.  We  may  be  continually  passing 
and  repassing  through  their  bodies,  and  it  is  also  pro- 
bable that  they  do  not  see  or  feel  us.  It  is  a  circle 
within  a  circle,  universe  within  universe.     Those  only 


44  RAJA  YOGA. 

that  are  on  the  same  plane  see  each  other.  We  have 
five  senses,  and  we  represent  Prdna  in  a  certain  state 
of  vibration.  All  beings  in  the  same  st:  te  of  vibration 
will  see  each  other,  but  if  there  are  beings  who  repre- 
sent Prdna  in  a  higher  state  of  vibration  they  will  not 
be  seen.  We  may  increase  the  intensity  of  light  until 
we  cannot  see  the  light  at  all,  but  there  may  be  beings 
with  eyes  so  powerful  that  they  can  see  such  light. 
Again,  if  the  vibrations  are  very  low,  we  do  not  see 
light,  but  there  are  animals  that  see  it,  as  cats  and 
owls.  Our  range  of  vision  is  only  one  plane  of  the 
vibrations  of  this  Prdfia.  Take  this  atmosphere,  for 
instance;  it  is  piled  up  layer  on  layer,  but  the  layers 
nearer  to  the  earth  are  denser  than  those  above  and 
as  you  go  higher  the  atmosphere  becomes  finer  and 
finer.  Or  take  the  case  of  the  ocean;  as  you  go  deeper 
and  deeper  the  density  of  the  water  increases,  and 
those  animals  that  live  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  can 
never  come  up,  or  they  will  be  broken  into  pieces. 

Think  of  this  whole  universe  as  an  ocean  of  ether, 
in  vibration  under  the  action  of  Prdna^  and  that  it  con- 
sists of  layer  after  layer  of  varying  degrees  of  vibra- 
tion; m  the  more  external  the  vibrations  are  less,  and 
nearer  to  the  centre  the  vibrations  become  quicker  and 
quicker,  and  each  range  of  vibration  makes  one  plane. 
Think  of  the  whole  thing  as  one  circle,  the  centre  of 
which  is  perfection ;  the  further  you  get  from  the  centre 
the  slower  the  vibrations.  Matter  is  the  outermost 
crust,  next  comes  mind,  and  spirit  is  the  centre.  Then 
suppose  these  ranges  of  vision  are  cut  into  planes,  so 


PRANA.  45 

many  millions  of  miles  one  set  of  vibration,  and  then 
so  many  millions  of  miles  still  higher,  and  so  on.  It  is 
perfectly  certain,  then,  that  those  who  live  on  the  plane 
of  a  certain  state  of  vibration  will  have  the  power 
of  recognising  each  other,  but  will  not  recognise 
those  above  or  below  them.  Yet,  just  as  by  the 
telescope  and  the  microscope  we  can  increase  the 
scope  of  our  vision,  and  make  higher  or  lower 
vibrations  cognisable  to  us,  similarly,  every  man  can 
bring  himself  to  the  state  of  vibration  belonging  to  the 
next  plane,  thus  enabling  himself  to  see  what  is  going 
on  there.  Suppose  this  room  were  full  of  beings  whom 
we  do  not  see.  They  represent  certain  vibrations  in 
the  Prdna,  and  we  represent  other  vibrations.  Sup- 
pose they  represent  the  quicker,  and  we  the  slower. 
Prdna  is  the  material  of  which  they  are  composed,  also 
of  which  we  are  composed ;  all  are  parts  of  the  same 
ocean  of  Prdna^  only  the  rate  of  vibration  differs.  If 
I  can  bring  myself  to  the  quicker  vibration  this  plane 
will  immediately  change  for  me;  I  shall  not  see  you 
any  more ;  you  vanish,  and  they  appear.  Some  of  you, 
perhaps,  know  this  to  be  true.  All  this  bringing  of  the 
mind  into  a  higher  state  of  vibration  is  included  in  one 
word  in  Yoga  —  Samddhi.  All  these  states  of  higher 
vibration,  superconscious  vibrations  of  the  mind,  are 
grouped  in  that  one  word,  Satnddhi^  and  the  lower 
states  of  Samddhi  give  us  visions  of  these  beings.  The 
highest  grade  of  Samddhi  is  when  we  see  the  real 
thing,  when  we  see  the  material  out  of  which  the 
whole  of  these  grades  of  beings  are  composed,  and  that 


4^  RAJA   YOGA. 

lump  of  clay  being  known,  we  know  all  the  clay  in  the 
universe. 

Thus  we  see  that  this  Prdndydma  includes  all  that  is 
true  of  spiritualism  even.  Similarly,  you  will  find  that 
wherever  any  sect  or  body  of  people  is  trying  to  search 
out  anything  occult  and  mystical,  or  hidden,  it  is  really 
this  Yoga^  this  attempt  to  control  the  Prdna.  You 
will  find  that  wherever  there  is  any  extraordinary  dis- 
play of  power  it  is  the  manifestation  of  this  Prdna. 
Even  the  physical  sciences  can  be  included  also  in 
Prdndydma.  What  moves  the  steam  engine  ?  Prdna^ 
acting  through  the  steam.  What  are  all  these  phe- 
nomena of  electricity  and  so  forth  but  Prdna  ?  What  is 
physical  science  ?  Prdndydma^  by  externa!  means. 
Prdna,  manifesting  itself  as  mental  power,  can  only  be 
controlled  by  mental  means.  That  part  of  the  Prdnd- 
ydma which  attempts  to  control  the  physical  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Prdna  by  physical  means  is  called  physical 
science,  and  that  part  which  tries  to  control  the  mani- 
festations of  the  Prdna  as  mental  force,  by  mental 
means,  is  called  Pdja  Yoga, 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    PSYCHIC    PRANA. 

According  to  the  Yogis  there  are  two  nerve  currents 
in  the  spinal  column,  called  Pingald  and  Idd^  and  there 
is  a  hollow  canal  called  Suiumnd  running  through  the 
spinal  cord.  At  the  lower  end  of  the  hollow  canal  is 
what  the  Yogis  call  the  "  Lotus  of  the  Kundalint.'" 
They  describe  it  as  triangular  in  form,  in  which,  in  the 
symbolical  language  of  the  Yogts^  there  is  a  power 
called  the  Kundalini  coiled  up.  When  that  Kundalini 
awakes  it  tries  to  force  a  passage  through  this  hollow 
canal,  and,  as  it  rises  step  by  step,  as  it  were,  layer 
after  layer  of  the  mind  becomes  open,  all  these  differ- 
ent visions  and  wonderful  powers  come  to  the  Yogi. 
When  it  reaches  the  brain  the  Yogi  is  perfectly  detached 
from  the  body  and  mind;  the  soul  finds  itself  free. 
We  know  that  the  spinal  cord  is  composed  in  a  peculiar 
manner.  If  we  take  the  figure  eight  horizontally  (  oo  ) 
there  are  two  parts,  and  these  two  parts  are  connected 
in  the  middle.  Suppose  you  add  eight  after  eight, 
piled  one  on  top  of  the  other,  that  will  represent  the 
spinal  cord.  The  left  is  the  Idd^  and  the  right  the 
Pingald^  and  that  hollow  canal  which  runs  through 
the  centre  of  the  spinal  cord  is  the  Suiiimnd.  Where  the 
spinal  cord  ends  in  some  of  the  lumbar  vertebrae,  a  fine 

[47] 


48  RAJA  YOGA. 

fibre  comes  down,  and  the  canal  is  even  in  that  fibre, 
only  much  finer.  The  canal  is  closed  at  the  lower  end, 
which  is  situated  near  what  is  called  the  sacral  plexus, 
which,  according  to  modern  physiology,  is  triangular 
in  form.  The  different  plexuses  that  have  their  cen- 
tres in  the  spinal  cord  can  very  well  stand  for  the 
different  "  lotuses  "  of  the  Vogt. 

The  F^^i*  conceives  of  several  centres,  beginning 
with  the  Mdlddhdra^  the  basic,  and  ending  with  the 
Sahasrdra^  the  thousand-petalled  lotus  in  the  brain. 
So,  if  we  take  these  different  plexuses  as  representing 
these  circles,  the  idea  of  the  Yogi  can  be  understood 
very  easily  in  the  language  of  modern  physiology.  We 
know  there  are  two  sorts  of  actions  in  these  nerve  cur- 
rents, one  afferent,  the  other  efferent,  one  sensory  and 
the  other  motor;  one  centripetal,  and  the  other  cen- 
trifugal. One  carries  the  sensations  to  the  brain,  and 
the  other  from  the  brain  to  the  outer  body.  These 
vibrations  are  all  connected  with  the  brain  in  the  long 
run.  Several  other  facts  we  have  to  remember,  in 
order  to  clear  the  way  for  the  explanation  which  is  to 
come.  This  spinal  cord,  at  the  brain,  ends  in  a  sort 
of  bulb,  in  the  medulla,  which  is  not  attached  to  the 
bone,  but  floats  in  a  fluid  in  the  brain,  so  that  if  there 
be  a  blow  on  the  head  the  force  of  that  blow  will  be 
dissipated  in  the  fluid,  and  will  not  hurt  the  bulb. 
This  will  be  an  important  fact  as  we  go  on.  Secondly, 
we  have  also  to  know  that,  of  all  the  centres,  we  have 
particularly  to  remember  three,  the  Mfilddkdra  (the 
basic),  the  Saha§rdra  (the  thousand-  petalled  lotus  of 


THE   PSYCHIC   PRANA.  49 

the  brain)  and  the  SvddhiWidna  (next  above  the  MtUdd- 
hdra).  Next  we  will  take  one  fact  from  physics.  We 
all  hear  of  electricity,  and  various  other  forces  con- 
nected with  it.  What  electricity  is  no  one  knows,  but, 
so  far  as  it  is  known,  it  is  a  sort  of  motion. 

There  are  various  other  motions  in  the  universe; 
what  is  the  difference  between  them  and  electricity  ? 
Suppose  this  table  moves,  that  the  molecules  which 
compose  this  table  are  moving  in  diiferent  directions; 
if  they  are  all  made  to  move  in  the  same  direction  it 
will  be  electricity.  Electric  motion  is  when  the  mole- 
cules all  move  in  the  same  direction.  If  all  the  air 
molecules  in  a  room  are  made  to  move  in  the  same 
direction  it  will  make  a  gigantic  battery  of  electricity 
of  the  room.  Another  point  from  physiology  we  must 
remember,  that  the  centre  which  regulates  the  respira- 
tory system,  the  breathing  system,  has  a  sort  of  con- 
trolling action  over  the  system  of  nerve  currents,  and 
the  controlling  centre  of  the  respiratory  system  is 
opposite  the  thorax,  in  the  spinal  column.  This  centre 
regulates  the  respiratory  organs,  and  also  exercises 
some  control  over  the  secondary  centres. 

Now  we  shall  see  why  breathing  is  practised.  In  the 
first  place,  from  rhythmical  breathing  will  come  a 
tendency  of  all  the  molecules  in  the  body  to  have  the 
same  direction.  When  mind  changes  into  will,  the 
currents  change  into  a  motion  similar  to  electricity, 
because  the  nerves  have  been  proved  to  show  polarity 
under  action  of  electric  currents.  This  shows  that 
when   the   will  evolves  into  the   nerve  currents  it  is 

4 


50  rAja  yoga. 

changed  into  something  like  electricity.  When  all  the 
motions  of  the  body  have  become  perfectly  rhythmical 
the  body  has,  as  it  were,  become  a  gigantic  battery  of 
will.  This  tremendous  will  is  exactly  what  the  Yogi 
wants.  This  is,  therefore,  a  physiological  explanation 
of  the  breathing  exercise.  It  tends  to  bring  a  rhyth- 
mic action  in  the  body,  and  heips  us,  through  the 
respiratory  centre,  to  control  the  other  centres.  The 
aim  of  Prdndydma  here  is  to  rouse  the  coiled-up  power 
in  the  Millddhdra^  called  the  Kundalini. 

Everything  that  we  see,  or  imagine,  or  dream,  we 
have  to  perceive  in  space.  This  is  the  ordinary  space, 
called  the  Mahdkdia^  or  great  space.  When  a  Yogi 
reads  the  thoughts  of  other  men,  or  perceives  super- 
sensuous  objects,  he  sees  them  in  another  sort  of  space 
called  the  Chittdkdsa^  the  mental  space.  When  percep- 
tion has  become  objectless,  and  the  soul  shines  in  its 
own  nature,  it  is  called  the  Chiddkdsa^  or  knowledge 
space.  When  the  Kundalini  is  aroused,  and  enters  the 
canal  of  the  Suhi??ind  all  the  perceptions  are  in  the 
mental  space.  When  it  has  reached  that  end  of  the 
canal  which  opens  out  into  the  brain,  the  objectless 
perception  is  in  the  knowledge  space.  Taking  the 
analogy  of  electricity,  we  find  that  man  can  send  a 
current  only  along  a  wire,  but  nature  requires  no  wires 
to  send  her  tremendous  currents.  This  proves  that 
the  wire  is  not  really  necessary,  but  that  only  our  in- 
ability to  dispense  with  it  compels  us  to  use  it. 

Similarly,  all  the  sensations  and  motions  of  the  body 
are  being  sent  into  the  brain,  and  sent  out  of  it,  through 


THE    PSYCHIC   PRAnA.  5 1 

these  wires  of  nerve  fibres.  The  columns  of  sensory 
and  motor  fibres  in  the  spinal  cord  are  the  Idd  and 
Piftgald  of  the  Yogis.  They  are  the  main  channels 
through  which  the  afferent  and  efferent  currents  are 
travelling.  But  why  should  not  the  mind  send  the 
news  without  any  wire,  or  react  without  any  wires  ? 
We  see  that  this  is  being  done  in  nature.  The  Yog\ 
says  if  you  can  do  that  you  have  got  rid  of  the  bond- 
age of  matter.  How  to  do  it  ?  If  you  can  make  the 
current  pass  through  the  Suhimnd^  the  canal  in  the 
middle  of  the  spinal  column,  you  have  solved  the  prob- 
lem. The  mind  has  made  this  net-work  of  the  nervous 
system,  and  has  to  break  it,  so  that  no  wires  will  be 
required  to  work  through.  Then  alone  will  all  knowl- 
edge come  to  us  —  no  more  bondage  of  body;  that  is 
why  it  is  so  important  that  you  should  get  control  of 
that  Suiumnd.  If  you  can  send  the  mental  current 
through  that  hollow  canal  without  any  nerve  fibres  to 
act  as  wires,  the  Yogi  says  you  have  solved  the  prob- 
lem, and  he  also  says  it  can  be  done. 

This  Su^umud  is,  in  ordinary  persons,  closed  up  at 
the  lower  extremity;  no  action  comes  through  it.  The 
Yogi  proposes  a  practice  by  which  it  can  be  opened, 
and  the  nerve  currents  made  to  travel  through.  When 
a  sensation  is  carried  to  a  centre,  the  centre  reacts. 
This  reaction,  in  the  case  of  automatic  centres,  is  fol- 
lowed by  motion;  in  the  case  of  conscious  centres  it  is 
followed  first  by  perception,  and  secondly  by  motion. 
All  perception  is  the  reaction  to  action  from  outside. 
How,  then,  do  perceptions  in  dreams  arise  ?     There  is 


52  rAja  yoga. 

then  no  action  from  outside.  The  sensory  motions, 
therefore,  are  coiled  up  somewhere,  just  as  the  motor 
motions  are  known  to  be  in  different  centres.  For 
instance,  I  see  a  city;  the  perception  of  that  city  was 
from  the  reaction  to  the  sensations  brought  from  out- 
side objects  comprising  that  city.  That  is  to  say,  a 
certain  motion  in  the  brain  molecules  has  been  set  up 
by  the  motion  in  the  incarrying  nerves,  which  again 
were  set  in  motion  by  external  objects  in  the  city. 
Now,  even  after  a  long  time  I  can  remember  the  city. 
This  memory  is  exactly  the  same  phenomenon,  only  it 
is  in  a  milder  form.  But  whence  is  the  action  that  set 
up  even  the  milder  form  of  similar  vibrations  in  the 
brain.  Not  certainly  from  the  primary  sensations. 
Therefore  it  must  be  that  the  sensations  are  coiled  up 
somewhere,  and  they,  by  their  acting,  bring  out  the 
mild  reaction  which  we  call  dream  perception.  Now 
the  centre  where  all  these  residual  sensations  are,  as  it 
were,  stored  up,  is  called  the  Mfilddhdra^  the  root  recep- 
tacle, and  the  coiled  up  energy  of  action  is  Kundalint^ 
the  "  coiled  up."  It  is  very  probable  that  the  residual 
motor  energy  is  also  stored  up  in  the  same  centre  as, 
after  deep  study  or  meditation  on  external  objects,  the 
part  of  the  body  where  the  Mulddhdra  centre  is  situ- 
ated (probably  the  sacral  plexus)  gets  heated.  Now, 
if  this  coiled-up  energy  be  roused  and  made  active,  and 
then  consciously  made  to  travel  up  the  Suhimnd  canal, 
as  it  acts  upon  centre  after  centre,  a  tremendous  reac- 
tion will  set  in.  When  a  minute  portion  of  the  energy 
of  action  travels  along  a  nerve  fibre  and  causes  reaction 


THE   PSYCHIC   PRAnA.  $3 

from  centres,  the  perception  is  either  dream  or  imagi- 
nation. But  when  the  vast  mass  of  this  energy  stored 
up  by  the  power  of  long  internal  meditation  travels 
along  the  Suiumnd^  and  strikes  the  centres,  the  reac- 
tion is  tremendous,  immensely  superior  to  the  reaction 
of  dream  or  imagination,  immensely  more  intense  than 
the  reaction  of  sense  perception.  It  is  super-sensuous 
perception,  and  the  mind  in  that  state  is  called  super- 
conscious.  And  when  it  reaches  the  metropolis  of  all 
sensations,  the  brain,  the  whole  brain,  as  it  were, 
reacts,  and  every  perceiving  molecule  in  the  body,  as 
it  were,  reacts,  and  the  result  is  the  full  blaze  of  illu- 
mination, the  perception  of  the  Self.  As  this  Kundalini 
force  travels  from  centre  to  centre,  layer  after  layer  of 
the  mind,  as  it  were,  will  be  opened  up,  and  this  uni 
verse  will  be  perceived  by  the  Yogi  in  its  fine,  or  coarse, 
form.  Then  alone  the  causes  of  this  universe,  both  as 
sensation  and  reaction,  will  be  known  as  they  are,  and 
hence  will  come  all  knowledge.  The  causes  being 
known,  the  knowledge  of  the  effects  is  sure  to  follow. 
Thus  the  rousing  of  the  Kundalini  is  the  one  and 
only  way  to  attaining  Divine  Wisdom,  and  super-con- 
scious perception,  the  realisation  of  the  spirit.  It  may 
come  in  various  ways,  through  love  for  God,  through 
the  mercy  of  perfected  sages,  or  through  the  power  of 
the  analytic  will  of  the  philosopher.  Wherever  there 
is  any  manifestation  of  what  is  ordinarily  called  super- 
natural power  or  wisdom,  there  must  have  been  a  little 
current  of  Kundalifii  which  found  its  way  into  the 
Suiumnd.     Only,  in  the  vast  majority  of  such  cases  of 


54  Rk]A  YOGA. 

super-naturalism,  they  had  ignorantly  stumbled  on  to 
some  practice  which  set  free  a  minute  portion  of  the 
coiled-up  Kundalini.  All  worship,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  leads  to  this  end.  The  man  who  thinks 
that  he  is  receiving  responses  to  his  prayers  does  not 
know  that  the  fulfilment  came  only  from  his  own 
nature,  that  he  has  succeeded  by  the  mental  attitude 
of  prayer  in  waking  up  a  bit  of  this  infinite  power 
which  is  coiled  up  within  himself.  Whom,  thus,  men 
ignorantl)''  worship  under  various  names,  through  fear 
and  tribulation,  the  Yogi  declares  to  the  world  to  be  the 
real  power  coiled  up  in  every  being,  the  mother  of  eter- 
nal happiness,  if  we  know  how  to  approach  her.  And 
Raja  Yoga  is  the  science  of  religion,  the  rationale  of 
all  worship,  all  prayers,  forms,  ceremonies,  and 
miracles. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    CONTROL    OF    PSYCHIC    PRANA. 

We  have  now  to  deal  with  the  exercises  in  Frdnd' 
ydma.  We  have  seen  that  the  first  step  will  be,  accord- 
ing to  the  Yogis^  to  control  the  motion  of  the  lungs. 
What  we  want  to  do  is  to  feel  the  finer  motions  that  are 
going  on  in  the  body.  Our  minds  have  become 
externalised,  and  have  lost  sight  of  the  fine  motions 
inside.  If  we  can  begin  to  feel  them,  we  can  begin  to 
control  them.  These  nerve  currents  are  going  on  all 
over  the  body,  bringing  life  and  vitality  to  every  muscle, 
but  we  do  not  feel  them.  The  Yogi  says  we  can  learn  to 
do  so.  How?  By  taking  up  and  controlling  all  these 
motions  of  the  Frdna  beginning  with  the  motion  of  the 
lungs,  and  when  we  have  done  that  for  a  sufficient 
length  of  time  we  shall  also  be  able  to  control  the  finer 
motions. 

We  now  come  to  the  exercises  in  Prdndydma.  Sit 
upright;  the  body  must  be  kept  straight.  The  spinal 
cord,  although  it  is  inside  the  vertebral  column,  is  not 
attached  to  it.  If  you  sit  crookedly  you  disturb  this 
spinal  cord,  so  let  it  be  free.  Any  time  that  you  sit 
crookedly  and  try  to  meditate  you  are  doing  yourself 
an  injury.  The  three  parts  of  the  body  must  be  always 
held  straight,  the  chest,  the  neck,  and  the  head,  in  one 

[55] 


56  RAJA  YOGA. 

line.  You  will  find  that  by  a  little  practice  this  will 
come  to  you  just  as  breathing.  The  second  thing  is 
to  get  control  of  the  nerves.  We  have  seen  that  the 
nerve  centre  that  controls  the  respiratory  organs,  has 
a  sort  of  controlling  effect  on  the  other  nerves,  and 
rhythmical  breathing  is  therefore  necessary.  The 
breathing  that  we  generally  use  should  not  be  called 
breathing  at  all.  It  is  very  irregular.  Then  there  are 
some  natural  differences  of  breathing  between  men 
and  women. 

The  first  lesson  is  just  to  breathe  in  a  measured  way, 
in  and  out.  That  will  harmonise  the  system.  When 
you  have  practised  this  for  some  time  you  will  do  well 
to  join  the  repetition  of  some  word  to  it,  as  "  (9w,"  or 
any  other  sacred  word,  and  let  the  word  flow  in  and 
out  with  the  breath,  rhythmically,  harmoniously,  and 
you  will  find  the  whole  body  is  becoming  rhythmical. 
Then  you  will  learn  what  rest  is.  Sleep  is  not  rest, 
comparatively.  Once  this  rest  has  come  the  most 
tired  nerves  will  be  calmed  down,  and  you  will  find 
that  you  have  never  before  really  rested.  In  India  we 
use  certain  symbolical  words  instead  of  counting  one, 
two,  three,  four.  That  is  why  I  advise  you  to  join  the 
mental  repetition  of  the  **  Otti**  or  other  sacred  word 
to  the  Prdndydma. 

The  first  effect  of  this  practice  will  be  that  the  face 
will  change;  harsh  lines  will  disappear;  with  this  calm 
thought  calmness  will  come  over  the  face.  Next, 
beautiful  voice  will  come.  I  never  saw  a  Yogi  with  a 
croaking  voice.     These  signs  will   come  after  a  few 


THE   CONTROL   OF   PSYCHIC   PRAnA.  57 

months'  practice.  After  practising  this  first  breathing 
for  a  few  days,  you  take  up  a  higher  one.  Slowly  fill 
the  lungs  with  breath  through  the  Idd^  the  left  nostril, 
and  at  the  same  time  concentrate  the  mind  on  the 
nerve  current.  You  are,  as  it  were,  sending  the  nerve 
current  down  the  spinal  column,  and  striking  violently 
on  that  last  plexus,  the  basic  lotus,  which  is  triangular 
in  form,  the  seat  of  the  KundaUm.  Then  hold  the 
current  there  for  some  time.  Imagine  that  you  are 
slowly  drawing  that  nerve  current  with  the  breath 
through  the  other  side,  then  slowly  throw  it  out  through 
the  right  nostril.  This  you  w^ill  fmd  a  little  difficult  to 
practise.  The  easiest  way  is  to  stop  the  right  nostril 
with  the  thumb,  and  then  slowly  draw  in  the  breath 
through  the  left;  then  close  both  nostrils  with  thumb 
and  forefinger,  and  imagine  that  you  are  sending  that 
current  down,  and  striking  the  base  of  the  Suhufind; 
then  take  the  thumb  off,  and  let  the  breath  out  through 
the  right  nostril.  Next  inhale  slowly  through  that 
nostril,  keeping  the  other  closed  by  the  forefinger,  then 
close  both,  as  before.  The  way  the  Hindds  practise 
this  would  be  very  difficult  for  this  country,  because 
they  do  it  from  their  childhood,  and  their  lungs  are 
prepared  for  it.  Here  it  is  well  to  begin  with  four 
seconds,  and  slowly  increase.  Draw  in  four  seconds, 
hold  in  sixteen  seconds,  then  throw  out  in  eight 
seconds.  This  makes  one /'/w/^^'^''''^^-  At  the  same  time 
think  of  the  triangle,  concentrate  the  mind  on  that 
centre.  The  imagination  can  help  you  a  great  deal. 
The  next  breathing  is  slowly  drawing  the  breath  in,  and 


58  rAja  yoga. 

then  immediately  throwing  it  out  slowly,  and  then  stop- 
ping the  breath  out,  using  the  same  numbers.  The 
only  difference  is  that  in  the  first  case  the  breath  was 
held  in,  and  in  the  second,  held  out.  The  last  is  the 
easier  one.  The  breathing  in  which  you  hold  the 
breath  in  the  lungs  must  not  be  practised  too  much. 
Do  it  only  four  times  in  the  morning,  and  four  times 
in  the  evening.  Then  you  can  slowly  increase  the  time 
and  number.  You  will  find  that  you  have  the  power 
to  do  so,  and  that  you  take  pleasure  in  it.  So,  very 
carefully  and  cautiously  increase  as  you  feel  that  you 
have  the  power,  to  six  instead  of  four.  It  may  injure 
you  if  you  practise  it  irregularly. 

Of  the  three  processes,  the  purification  of  the  nerves, 
the  retaining  the  breath  inside  and  the  keeping  the 
breath  outside,  the  first  and  the  last  are  neither  diffi- 
cult nor  dangerous.  The  more  you  practise  the  first 
one  the  calmer  you  will  be.  Just  think  of  "(9///,"  and 
you  can  practise  even  while  you  are  sitting  at  your 
work.  You  will  be  all  the  better  for  it.  One  day,  if 
you  practise  hard  the  Kundalini  will  be  aroused.  For 
those  who  practise  once  or  twice  a  day,  just  a  little 
calmness  of  the  body  and  mind  will  come,  and  beauti- 
ful voice;  only  for  those  who  can  go  on  further  with  it 
will  this  Kundalini  be  aroused,  and  the  whole  of  this 
nature  will  begin  to  change,  and  the  book  of  knowledge 
will  be  open.  No  more  will  you  need  to  go  to  books 
for  knowledge;  your  own  mind  will  have  become  your 
book,  containing  infinite  knowledge.  I  have  already 
spoken  of  the  Idd  and  Pingald  currents,  flowing  through 


THE   CONTROL   OF   PSYCHIC   PRANA.  59 

either  side  of  the  spinal  column,  also  of  the  Suiumnd^ 
the  passage  through  the  centre  of  the  spinal  cord. 
These  three  are  present  in  every  animal;  whatever  has 
a  spinal  column  has  these  three  lines  of  action,  but  the 
Yogis  claim  that  in  ordinary  mankind  the  Suhimnd  is 
closed,  that  action  there  is  not  evident,  while  in  the 
other  two  it  is  evident,  carrying  power  to  different 
parts  of  the  body. 

The  Yogi  alone  has  the  Suhi?nnd  open.  When  this 
Suiumnd  current  opens,  and  thought  begins  to  rise 
through  it,  we  get  beyond  the  senses,  our  minds 
become  supersensuous,  superconscious,  we  get  beyond 
even  the  intellect,  and  where  reasoning  cannot  reach. 
To  open  that  Suiu7n7id  is  the  prime  object  of  the  Yogi. 
According  to  him,  along  this  Suiumnd  are  ranged  these 
centres  of  distribution,  or,  in  more  figurative  language, 
these  lotuses,  as  they  are  called.  The  lowest  one  is  at 
the  lowest  end  of  the  spinal  cord,  and  is  called  MUld- 
dhdra^  the  next  one  is  called  Svddhisthdna^  the  next 
McDiipilra^  the  next  Atidhata^  the  next  Viiuddha^  the 
next  Ajna^  and  the  last,  which  is  in  the  brain,  is  the 
Sahairdra^  or  "the  thousand  petalled."  Of  these  we 
have  to  take  cognition  just  now  of  only  two  centres, 
the  lowest,  the  MUlddhdra^  and  the  highest,  the  Sahai- 
rdra.  The  lowest  one  is  where  all  energy  becomes 
stored  up,  and  that  energy  has  to  be  taken  up  from 
there  and  brought  to  the  last  one,  the  brain.  The 
Yogis  claim  that  of  all  the  energies  that  the  human 
body  comprises  the  highest  is  what  they  call  '*Ojas.** 
Now  this  Ojas  is  stored  up  in  the  brain,  and  the  more 


6o  RAJA   YOGA. 

the  Ojas  is  in  a  man's  liead,  the  more  powerful  he  is, 
the  more  intellectual,  the  more  spiritually  strong  will 
that  man  be.  This  is  the  action  of  Ojas.  One  man 
may  speak  beautiful  language  and  beautiful  thoughts, 
but  they  do  not  impress  people;  another  man  speaks 
neither  beautiful  language  nor  beautiful  thoughts,  yet 
his  words  charm.  That  is  the  power  of  Ojas  coming 
out.  Every  movement  coming  from  him  will  be 
powerful. 

Now  in  all  mankind  there  is  more  or  less  of  this  Ojas 
stored  up.  And  all  the  forces  that  are  working  in  the 
body,  in  their  highest  form,  become  Ojas.  You  must 
remember  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  transformation. 
The  same  force  which  is  working  outside,  as  electricity 
or  magnetism,  will  become  changed  into  inner  force; 
the  same  forces  that  are  working  as  muscular  energy 
will  be  changed  into  Ojas.  The  Yogis  say  that  that 
part  of  the  human  energy  which  is  expressed  as  sex 
energy,  in  sexual  functions,  sexual  thought,  and  so  on, 
when  checked  and  controlled,  easily  becomes  changed 
into  Ojas^  and  as  this  lowest  centre  is  the  one  which 
guides  all  these  functions,  therefore  the  Yogi  pays  par- 
ticular attention  to  that  centre.  He  tries  to  take  up 
all  this  sexual  energy  and  convert  it  into  Ojas.  It  is 
only  the  chaste  man  or  woman  who  can  make  the  Ojas 
rise  and  become  stored  in  the  brain,  and  that  is  why 
chastity  has  always  been  considered  the  highest  virtue, 
because  man  feels  that  if  he  is  unchaste,  spirituality 
goes  away,  he  loses  mental  vigour,  and  strong  moral 
Stamina.     That  is  why  in  all  of  the  religious  orders  in 


THE   CONTROL   OF   PSYCHIC   PRANA.  6l 

the  world  that  have  produced  spiritual  giants  you  will 
always  find  this  intense  chastity  insisted  upon.  That 
is  why  the  monks  came  into  existence,  giving  up  mar- 
riage. There  must  be  perfect  chastity,  in  thought, 
word  and  deed.  Without  it  the  practice  of  Rdja  Yoga 
is  dangerous,  and  may  lead  to  insanity.  If  people 
practise  Rdja  Yoga  and  at  the  same  time  lead  an  imoure 
life,  how  can  they  expect  to  become  Yogis  t 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PRATYAHARA    AND    DHARANA. 

The  next  step  is  called  Pratydhdra.  What  is  this? 
You  know  how  perceptions  come.  First  of  all  there  are 
the  external  instruments,  then  the  internal  organs, 
acting  in  the  body  through  the  brain  centres,  and  there 
is  the  mind.  When  these  come  together,  and  attach 
themselves  to  some  external  thing,  then  we  perceive 
that  thing.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  very  difficult  thing 
to  concentrate  the  mind  and  attach  it  to  one  organ 
only;  the  mind  is  a  slave. 

We  hear  "  be  good"  and  "  be  good"  and  "  be  good" 
taught  all  over  the  world.  There  is  hardly  a  child, 
born  in  any  country  in  the  world,  who  has  not  been  told 
•'  do  not  steal,"  "  do  not  tell  a  lie,"  but  nobody  tells 
the  child  how  he  can  help  it.  Talking  will  never  do  it. 
Whv  should  he  not  become  a  thief?  We  do  not  teach 
him  how  not  to  steal;  we  simply  tell  him  "  do  not 
steal."  Only  when  we  teach  him  to  control  his  mind 
do  we  really  help  him.  All  actions,  internal  and 
external,  occur  when  the  mind  joins  itself  to  certain 
centres,  which  centres  are  called  the  organs.  Willingly 
or  unwillingly  it  is  drawn  to  join  itself  to  the  centres, 
and  that  is  why  people  do  foolish  deeds  and  feel  misery, 
which,  if  the  mind  were  under  control,  they  would  not 

[62] 


pratyAhara  and  dharana.  63 

do.      What  would  be  the  result  of  controlling  the  mind? 
It  then  would  not  join  itself  to  the  centres  of  percep- 
tion, and,  naturally,  feeling  and  willing  would  be  under 
control.     It  is  clear  so  far.     Is  it  possible?     It  is  per- 
fectly possible.      You  see  it  in  modern  times;  the  faith- 
healers  teach  people  to  deny  misery  and  pain  and  evil. 
Their  philosophy  is  rather  roundabout,  but  it  is  a  part 
of  V({i:^(i  into  which  they  have  somehow  stumbled.     In 
those  cases   where   they  succeed   in  making  a  person 
throw    off   suffering    by    denying   it  they  have    really 
taught  a  part  of  Pratydhdra^  as  they  have  made  the 
mind  of  the  person  taught  strong  enough  to  refuse  to 
take  up  the  record  of  the  senses.     The  hypnotists  in 
a  similar  manner,  by  their  suggestion,   excite  in  the 
patient  a  sort  of  morbid  Pratydhdra  for  the  time  being. 
The  so-called  hypnotic  suggestion  can  only  act  upon  a 
diseased    body    and  a  clouded    mind.     And  until    the 
operator,  by  means  of  fixed  gaze  or  otherwise,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  putting  the  mind  of  the  subject  in  a  sort  of 
passive,  morbid  condition,  his  suggestions  never  work. 
Now  the  control  of  the   centres  which  is  established 
in   a  hypnotic   patient  or  the  patient  of  faith-healing, 
for  a  time,  is  utterly  reprehensible,  because  it  leads  to 
ultimate  ruin.      It  is  not  really  controlling  the  brain 
centres  by  the   power  of  one's  own  will,  but  is,  as  it 
were,  stunning  the  patient's  mind  for  a  time  by  sudden 
blows   which  another's  will  delivers  to  it.     It  is  not 
checking  by  means  of  reins  and  muscular  strength  the 
mad    career   of   a    fiery    team,  but    rather   by    asking 
another  to  deliver  heavy  blows  on  the  heads  of  the 


64  RAJA   YOGA. 

horses,  to  stun  them  for  a  time  into  gentleness.  At 
each  one  of  these  processes  the  man  operated  upon 
loses  a  part  of  his  mental  energies,  and,  at  last,  the 
mind,  instead  of  gaining  the  power  of  perfect  control, 
becomes  a  shapeless,  powerless  mass,  and  the  only  goal 
of  the  patient  is  the  lunatic  asylum. 

Every  attempt  at  control  which  is  not  voluntary,  not 
with  the  controller's  own  mind,  is  not  only  disastrous, 
but  it  defeats  the  end.  The  goal  of  each  soul  is  free- 
dom, mastery,  freedom  from  the  slavery  of  matter  and 
thought,  mastery  of  external  and  internal  nature. 
Instead  of  leading  towards  that,  every  will  current 
from  another,  in  whatever  form  it  comes  to  me,  either 
as  direct  control  of  my  organs,  or  as  forcing  me  to 
control  them  while  under  a  morbid  condition,  only 
rivets  one  link  more  to  the  already  existing  heavy  chain 
of  bondage  of  past  thoughts,  past  superstition.  There- 
fore, beware  how  you  allow  yourselves  to  be  acted  upon 
by  others.  Beware  how  you  unknowingly  bring 
another  to  ruin.  True,  some  succeed  in  doing  good 
to  many  for  a  time,  by  giving  a  new  trend  to  their 
propensities,  but  at  the  same  time,  they  bring  ruin  to 
millions  by  the  unconscious  hypnotic  suggestions  they 
throw  around,  rousing  in  men  and  women  that  morbid, 
passive,  hypnotic  condition  which  makes  them  almost 
soulless  at  last.  Whosoever,  therefore,  asks  anvone 
to  believe  blindly,  or  drags  mankind  behind  him  through 
controlling  it  by  his  superior  will  is  an  injurer  to 
humanity,  though  he  may  not  have  intended  it. 

Therefore   use  your  own  minds,  control  body  and 


PRATYAHARA  AND    DHARANA.  65 

mind  yourselves,  remember  that  until  you  are  a  diseased 
person,  no  extraneous  will  can  work  upon  you,  and 
avoid  everyone,  however  great  and  good  he  may  be, 
who  asks  you  to  blindly  believe.  All  over  the  world 
there  have  been  dancing,  and  jumping,  and  howling 
sects,  who  spread  like  infections  when  they  begin  to 
sing  and  dance  and  preach;  they  also  come  under  this 
heading.  They  exercise  a  singular  control  for  the 
time  being  over  sensitive  persons,  alas,  often,  in  the 
long  run,  to  degenerate  whole  races.  Aye,  it  is  healthier 
for  the  individual  or  the  race  to  remain  wicked  than 
to  be  made  apparently  good  by  such  morbid  extraneous 
control.  One's  heart  sinks  to  think  of  the  amount  of 
injury  done  to  humanity  by  such  irresponsible,  yet  well- 
meaning  religious  fanatics.  They  little  know  that  the 
minds  which  attain  to  sudden  spiritual  upheaval  under 
their  suggestions,  with  music  and  prayers,  are  simply 
making  themselves  passive,  morbid,  and  powerless,  and 
opening  themselves  to  any  other  suggestion,  be  it  ever 
so  evil.  Little  do  these  ignorant,  deluded  persons 
dream  that  whilst  they  are  congratulating  themselves 
upon  their  miraculous  power  to  transform  human 
hearts,  which  power  they  think  was  poured  upon  them 
by  some  Being  above  the  clouds,  they  are  sowing  the 
seeds  of  future  decay,  of  crime,  of  lunacy,  and  of 
death.  Therefore,  beware  of  everything  that  takes 
away  your  freedom.  Know  that  it  is  dangerous, 
and  avoid  it  by  all  the  means  in  your  power.  He  who 
has  succeeded  in  attaching  or  detaching  his  mind  to  or 
from  the  centres  at  will  has  succeeded  in  Pratydhdra, 
5 


(i6  RAJA   YOGA. 

which  means  "  gathering  towards,"  checking  the  out- 
going powers  of  the  mind,  freeing  it  from  the  thraldom 
of  the  senses.  When  we  can  do  this  we  shall  really 
possess  a  character;  then  alone  we  shall  have  made  a 
long  step  towards  freedom;  before  that  we  are  mere 
machines. 

How  hard  it  is  to  control  the  mind.  Well  has  it 
been  compared  to  the  maddened  monkey.  There  was 
a  monkey,  restless  by  his  own  nature,  as  all  monkeys 
are.  As  if  that  were  not  enough  someone  made  him 
drink  freely  of  wine,  so  that  he  became  still  more  rest- 
less. Then  a  scorpion  stung  him.  When  a  man  is 
stung  by  a  scorpion  he  jumps  about  for  a  whole  day, 
so  the  poor  monkey  found  his  condition  worse  than 
ever.  To  complete  his  misery  a  demon  entered  into 
him.  What  language  can  describe  the  uncontrollable 
restlessness  of  that  monkey?  The  human  mind  is  like 
that  monkey;  incessantly  active  by  its  own  nature, 
then  it  becomes  drunk  with  the  wine  of  desire,  thus 
increasing  its  turbulence.  After  desire  takes  possession 
comes  the  sting  of  the  scorpion  of  jealousy  of  others 
whose  desires  meet  wdth  fulfilment,  and  last  of  all  the 
demon  of  pride  takes  possession  of  the  mind,  making 
it  think  itself  of  all  importance.  How  hard  to  control 
such  a  mind. 

The  first  lesson,  then,  is  to  sit  for  some  time  and  let 
the  mind  run  on.  The  mind  is  bubbling  up  all  the 
time.  It  is  like  that  monkey  jumping  about.  Let  the 
monkey  jump  as  much  as  he  can;  you  simply  wait  and 
watch.      Knowledge  is  power  says  the  proverb,   and 


PRATYAHARA   AND    DHArANA.  6/ 

that  is  true.  Until  you  know  what  the  mind  is  doing 
you  cannot  control  it.  Give  it  the  full  length  of  the 
reins;  many  most  hideous  thoughts  may  come  into  it; 
you  will  be  astonished  that  it  was  possible  for  you  to 
think  such  thoughts.  But  you  will  find  that  each  day 
the  mind's  vagaries  are  becoming  less  and  less  violent, 
that  each  day  it  is  becoming  calmer.  In  the  first  few 
months  you  will  find  that  the  mind  will  have  a  thousand 
thoughts,  later  you  will  find  that  it  is  toned  down  to 
perhaps  seven  hundred,  and  after  a  few  more  months  it 
will  have  fewer  and  fewer,  until  at  last  it  will  be  under 
perfect  control,  but  we  must  patiently  practise  every 
day.  As  soon  as  the  steam  is  turned  on  the  engine 
must  run,  and  as  soon  as  things  are  before  us  we  must 
perceive;  so  a  man,  to  prove  that  he  is  not  a  machine, 
must  demonstrate  that  he  is  under  the  control  of  noth- 
ing. This  controlling  of  the  mind,  and  not  allowing  it 
to  join  itself  to  the  centres,  is  Fratydhdra.  How  is  this 
practised  ?  It  is  a  long  work,  not  to  be  done  in  a  day. 
Only  after  a  patient,  continuous  struggle  for  years  can 
we  succeed. 

The  next  lesson  depends  on  this.  After  you  have 
practised  the  Prafydhdra  for  a  time,  take  the  next  step, 
the  Dhdrand^  holding  the  mind  to  certain  points. 
What  is  meant  by  holding  the  mind  to  certain  points? 
Forcing  the  mind  to  feel  certain  parts  of  the  body  to 
the  exclusion  of  others.  For  instance,  try  to  feel  only 
the  hand,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  parts  of  the  body. 
When  the  Chitta^  or  mind-stuff,  is  confined  and  limited 
to  a  certain  place,  this  is  called  Dhdrand.    This  Dhdrand 


68  RAJA   YOGA. 

is  of  various  sorts,  and  along  with  it,  it  is  better  to 
have  a  little  play  of  the  imagination.  For  instance, 
the  mind  should  be  made  to  think  of  one  point  in  the 
heart.  That  is  very  difficult;  an  easier  way  is  to  imagine 
a  lotus  there.  That  lotus  is  full  of  light,  effulgent 
light.  Put  the  mind  there.  Or  think  of  the  lotus  in 
the  brain  as  full  of  light,  or  of  the  different  centres  in 
the  Suiumnd  mentioned  before. 

The  Yogi  must  always  practise.  He  should  try  to 
live  alone;  the  companionship  of  different  sorts  of 
people  distracts  his  mind;  he  should  not  speak  much, 
because  to  speak  distracts  the  mind;  nor  work  much, 
because  too  much  work  distracts  the  mind;  the  mind 
cannot  be  controlled  after  a  whole  day's  hard  work. 
One  with  such  a  determination  becomes  a  Yogt.  Such 
is  the  power  of  good  that  even  the  least  done  will  bring 
a  great  amount  of  benefit.  It  will  not  hurt  anyone,  but 
will  benefit  everyone.  First  of  all  it  will  tone  down 
nervous  excitement,  bring  calmness,  enable  us  to  see 
things  more  clearly.  The  temperament  w411  be  better, 
and  the  health  will  be  better.  Sound  health  will  be 
one  of  the  first  signs,  and  a  beautiful  voice.  Defects 
in  the  voice  will  be  changed.  This  w^ill  be  among  the 
first  of  the  many  effects  that  will  come.  Those  who 
practise  hard  will  get  many  other  signs.  Sometimes 
there  will  be  sounds,  as  a  peal  of  bells  heard  at  a  dis- 
tance, commingling,  and  falling  on  the  ear  as  one  con- 
tinuous sound.  Sometimes  things  will  be  seen,  little 
specks  of  light  floating  and  becoming  bigger  and  big- 
ger, and  when  these  things  come,  know  that  you  arc 


pratyAhara  and  dharana.  69 

progressing  very  fast.  Those  who  want  to  be  Vogts^ 
and  practise  very  hard,  must  take  a  little  care  of  their 
diet  at  first.  Those  who  want  to  make  very  rapid  pro- 
gress, if  they  can  live  on  milk  alone  for  some  months, 
and  cereals,  will  find  it  an  advantage.  But  for  those 
who  want  only  a  littl:^  practice  for  every  day  business 
sort  of  life,  let  them  not  eat  too  much,  but  otherwise 
they  may  eat  whatever  they  please. 

For  those  who  want  to  make  faster  progress,  and  to 
practise  hard,  a  strict  diet  is  absolutely  necessary. 
As  the  organisation  becomes  finer  and  finer,  at  first 
you  will  find  that  the  least  thing  throws  you  out  of  bal- 
ance. One  bit  of  food  more  or  less  will  disturb  the 
whole  system,  until  you  get  perfect  control,  and  then 
you  will  be  able  to  eat  whatever  you  like.  You  will 
find  that  when  you  are  beginning  to  concentrate,  the 
dropping  of  a  pin  will  seem  like  a  thunderbolt  going 
through  your  brain.  The  organs  get  finer,  and  the 
perceptions  get  finer.  These  are  the  stages  through 
which  we  have  to  pass,  and  all  those  who  persevere 
will  succeed.  Give  up  all  argumentation  and  other 
distractions.  Is  there  anything  in  this  dry  intellectual 
jargon  ?  It  only  throws  the  mind  off  its  balance  and 
disturbs  it.  These  things  have  to  be  realised.  Will 
talking  do  that  ?  So  give  up  all  vain  talk.  Read  only 
those  books  which  have  been  written  by  persons  who 
have  had  realisation 

Be  like  the  pearl  oyster.  There  is  a  pretty  Indian 
fable  to  the  effect  that  if  it  rains  when  the  star  Svdtf  is 
in   the   ascendant,   and  a  drop  of  rain   falls  into   an 


70  RAJA   YOGA. 

oyster,  that  drop  will  become  a  pearl.  The  oysters 
know  this,  so  they  come  to  the  surface  when  that  star 
shines,  and  wait  to  catch  the  precious  rain-drop. 
When  one  falls  into  the  shell,  quickly  the  oyster  closes 
it  and  dives  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  there  to 
patiently  develop  the  drop  into  the  pearl.  We  should 
be  like  that.  First  hear,  then  understand,  and  then, 
leaving  all  distractions,  shut  our  minds  to  outside  influ- 
ences, and  devote  ourselves  to  developing  the  truth 
within  us.  There  is  the  danger  of  frittering  away  our 
energies  by  taking  up  an  idea  only  for  its  novelty,  and 
then  giving  it  up  for  another  that  is  newer.  Take  one 
thing  up  and  do  it,  and  see  the  end  of  it,  and  before 
you  have  seen  the  end,  do  not  give  it  up.  He  who  can 
become  mad  upon  an  idea,  he  alone  will  see  light. 
Those  that  only  take  a  nibble  here  and  there  will  never 
attain  anything.  They  may  titillate  their  nerves  for  a 
moment,  but  there  it  will  end.  They  will  be  slaves  in 
the  hands  of  nature,  and  will  never  get  beyond  the 
senses. 

Those  who  really  want  to  be  Vogts  must  give  up, 
once  for  all,  this  nibbling  at  things.  Take  up  one  idea. 
Make  that  one  idea  your  life;  dream  of  it;  think  of  it; 
live  on  that  idea.  Let  the  brain,  the  body,  muscles, 
nerves,  every  part  of  your  body  be  full  of  that  idea, 
and  just  leave  every  other  idea  alone.  This  is  the  way 
to  success,  and  this  is  the  way  great  spiritual  giants  are 
produced.  Others  are  mere  talking  machines.  If  we 
really  want  to  be  blessed,  and  make  others  blessed,  we 
must  go  deeper,  and,  for  the  first  step,  do  not  disturb 


PratyahAra  and  dhAranA.  71 

the  mind,  and  do  not  associate  with  persons  whose 
ideas  are  disturbing.  All  of  you  know  that  certain 
persons,  certain  places,  certain  foods,  repel  you. 
Avoid  them;  and  those  who  want  to  go  to  the  highest, 
must  avoid  all  company,  good  or  bad.  Practise  hard; 
whether  you  live  or  die  it  does  not  matter.  You  have 
to  plunge  in  and  work,  without  thinking  of  the  result. 
If  you  are  brave  enough,  in  six  months  you  will  be  a 
perfect  Yogi.  But,  for  others,  those  who  take  up  just 
a  bit  of  it,  a  little  of  everything,  they  get  no  higher. 
It  is  of  no  use  to  simply  take  a  course  of  lessons. 
Those  who  are  full  of  Tamas^  ignorant  and  dull,  those 
whose  minds  never  get  fixed  on  any  idea,  who  only 
crave  for  something  to  entertain  them  —  religion  and 
philosophy  are  simply  entertainments  to  them.  They 
come  to  religion  as  to  an  entertainment,  and  get  that 
little  bit  of  entertainment.  These  are  the  unpersever- 
ing.  They  hear  a  talk,  think  it  very  nice,  and  then  go 
home  and  forget  all  about  it.  To  succeed,  you  must 
have  tremendous  perseverance,  tremendous  will. 
"  I  will  drink  the  ocean,"  says  the  persevering  soul. 
**  At  my  will  mountains  will  crumble  up."  Have  that 
sort  of  energy,  that  sort  of  will,  work  hard,  and  you 
will  reach  the  goal. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

DHYANA    AND    SAMADHI. 

We  have  finished  a  cursory  review  of  the  different 
steps  in  Rdja  Yoga,  except  the  finer  ones,  the  training 
in  concentration,  which  is  the  aim,  the  goal,  to  which 
J^dja  Yoga  will  lead  us.  We  see,  as  human  beings, 
that  all  our  knowledge  which  is  called  rational  is 
referred  to  consciousness.  I  am  conscious  of  this 
table,  I  am  conscious  of  your  presence,  and  so  forth, 
and  that  makes  me  know  that  you  are  here,  and  that 
the  table  is  here,  and  things  I  see,  feel  and  hear,  are 
here.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  a  very  great  part  of 
my  existence  of  which  I  am  not  conscious  —  all  the 
different  organs  inside  the  body,  the  different  parts  of 
the  brain,  the  brain  itself;  nobody  is  conscious  of 
these  things. 

When  I  eat  food  I  do  it  consciously,  when  I  assimi- 
late it  I  do  it  unconsciously,  when  the  food  is  manu- 
factured into  blood  it  is  done  unconsciously;  when  out 
of  the  blood  all  the  different  parts  of  my  body  are 
made,  it  is  done  unconsciously;  and  yet  it  is  I  who  am 
doing  this;  there  cannot  be  twenty  people  in  this  one 
body.  How  do  I  know  that  I  do  it,  and  nobody  else  ? 
It  may  be  urged  that  my  business  is  only  in  eating  the 
food,  and  assimilating  the  food,  and  that  manufactur- 

[72I 


DHYANA   AND   SAMADHI.  73 

ing  the  body  out  of  the  food  is  done  for  me  by  some- 
body else.  That  cannot  be,  because  it  can  be  demon- 
strated that  almost  every  action  of  which  we  are 
unconscious  now  can  be  again  brought  up  to  the  plane 
of  consciousness.  The  heart  is  beating  apparently 
without  our  control;  we  none  of  us  here  can  control 
the  heart;  it  goes  on  its  own  way.  But  by  practice 
men  can  bring  even  the  heart  under  control,  until  it 
will  just  beat  at  will,  slowly,  or  quickly,  or  almost 
stop.  Nearly  every  part  of  the  body  can  be  brought 
under  control.  What  does  this  show  ?  That  these 
things  which  are  beneath  consciousness  are  also  worked 
by  us,  only  we  are  doing  it  unconsciously.  We  have, 
then,  two  planes  in  which  the  human  mind  is  working. 
First  is  the  conscious  plane;  that  is  to  say  that  sort  of 
work  which  is  always  accompanied  with  the  feeling  of 
egoism.  Next  comes  the  unconscious  plane,  the  work 
beneath,  that  which  is  unaccompanied  by  the  feeling 
of  egoism.  That  part  of  mind-work  which  is  unaccom- 
panied with  feeling  of  egoism  is  unconscious  work,  and 
that  part  which  is  accompanied  with  the  feeling  of 
egoism  is  conscious  work.  In  the  lower  animals  this 
unconscious  work  is  called  instinct.  In  higher  ani- 
mals, and  in  the  highest  of  all  animals,  man,  the  second 
part,  that  which  is  accompanied  with  the  feeling  of 
egoism,  prevails,  and  is  called  conscious  work. 

But  it  does  not  end  here.  There  is  a  still  higher 
plane  upon  which  the  mind  can  work.  It  can  go  be- 
yond consciousness.  Just  as  unconscious  work  is 
beneath  consciousness,  so  there  is  another  work  which 


74  RAJA  YOGA. 

is  above  consciousness,  and  which,  also,  is  not  accom- 
panied with  the  feeUng  of  egoism.  The  feeling  of 
egoism  is  only  on  the  middle  plane.  When  the  mind  is 
above  or  below  that  line  there  is  no  feeling  of  "  I," 
and  yet  the  mind  works.  When  the  mind  goes  beyond 
this  line  of  self-consciousness  it  is  called  Samddhi^  or 
super-consciousness.  It  is  above  consciousness.  How, 
for  instance,  do  we  know  that  a  man  in  Samddhi  has 
not  gone  below  his  consciousness,  has  not  degenerated, 
instead  of  going  higher  ?  In  both  cases  the  works  are 
unaccompanied  with  egoism  ?  The  answer  is,  by  the 
effects,  by  the  results  of  the  work,  we  know  that  which 
is  below,  and  that  which  is  above.  When  a  man  goes 
into  deep  sleep  he  enters  a  plane  beneath  conscious- 
ness. He  works  the  body  all  the  time,  he  breathes,  he 
moves  the  body,  perhaps,  in  his  sleep,  without  any 
accompanying  feeling  of  ego;  he  is  unconscious,  and 
when  he  returns  from  his  sleep  he  is  the  same  man 
who  went  into  it.  The  sum-total  of  the  knowledge 
which  he  had  before  he  went  into  the  sleep  remains 
the  same;  it  has  not  increased  at  all.  No  enlighten- 
ment has  come.  But  if  a  man  goes  into  Sa?nddhi^  if  he 
goes  into  it  a  fool,  he  comes  out  a  sage. 

What  makes  the  difference  ?  From  one  state  a  man 
comes  out  the  very  same  man  that  went  in,  and  out  of 
another  state  the  man  becomes  enlightened,  a  sage,  a 
prophet,  a  saint,  his  whole  character  changed,  his  life 
changed,  illumined.  These  are  the  two  effects.  Now 
the  effects  being  different,  the  causes  must  be  different. 
As  this  illumination,  with  which  a  man  comes  back  from 


DHYANA   AND    SAMAdHI.  75 

Safnddhi,  is  much  higher  than  can  be  got  from  uncon- 
sciousness, or  much  higher  than  can  be  got  by  reason- 
ing in  a  conscious  state,  it  must  therefore  be  super- 
consciousness,  and  Samddhi  is  called  the  super-con- 
scious state. 

This,  in  short,  is  the  idea  of  Samddhi,  What  is  its 
application  ?  The  application  is  here.  The  field  of 
reason,  or  of  the  conscious  workings  of  the  mind,  is 
narrow  and  limited.  There  is  a  little  circle  within 
which  human  reason  will  have  to  move.  It  cannot  go 
beyond  it.  Every  attempt  to  go  beyond  is  impossible, 
yet  it  is  beyond  this  circle  of  reason  that  lies  all  that 
humanity  holds  most  dear.  All  these  questions, 
whether  there  is  an  immortal  soul,  whether  there  is  a 
God,  whether  there  is  any  supreme  intelligence  guiding 
this  universe,  are  beyond  the  field  of  reason.  Reason 
can  never  answer  these  questions.  What  does  reason 
say  ?  It  says,  **  I  am  agnostic;  I  do  not  know  either 
yea  or  nay."  Yet  these  questions  are  so  important  to 
us.  Without  a  proper  answer  to  them,  human  life  will 
be  impossible.  All  our  ethical  theories,  all  our  moral 
attitudes,  all  that  is  good  and  great  in  human  nature, 
has  been  moulded  upon  answers  that  have  come  frorn 
beyond  that  circle.  It  is  very  important,  therefore, 
that  we  should  have  answers  to  these  questions;  with- 
out such  answers  human  life  will  be  impossible.  If  life 
is  only  a  little  five  minutes'  thing,  if  the  universe  is 
only  a  "fortuitous  combination  of  atoms,**  then  why 
should  I  do  good  to  another  ?  Why  should  there  be 
mercy,  justice,  or  fellow  feeling  ?     The  best  thing  for 


76  RAJA   YOGA. 

this  world  would  be  to  make  hay  while  the  sun  shines, 
each  man  for  himself.     If  there  is  no  hope,  why  should 
I  love  my  brother,  and  not  cut  his  throat  ?     If  there  is 
nothing  beyond,  if  there  is  no  freedom,  but  only  rigor- 
ous dead  laws,  I  should  only  try  to  make  myself  happy 
here.     You  will  find  people  saying,   now-a-days,  that 
they  have  utilitarian  grounds  as  the  basis  of  all  moral- 
ity.     What   is    this    basis  ?      Procuring   the    greatest 
amount  of  happiness  to  the  greatest  number.     Why 
should  I  do  this  ?     Why  should  I  not  produce  the  great- 
est unhappiness  to  the  greatest  number,  if  that  serves 
my  purpose  ?     How  will  utilitarians  answer  this  ques- 
tion ?     How  do  you  know  what  is  right,  or  what  is 
wrong  ?     I  am  impelled  by  my  desire  for  happiness  and 
I   fulfil  it,  and  it  is  in   my  nature;    I  know   nothing 
beyond.     I  have  these  desires,  and  must  fulfil  them; 
why  should   you  complain  ?     Whence  come  all  these 
truths  about  human   life,    about  morality,    about  the 
immortal  soul,  about  God,  about  love  and  sympathy, 
about  being  good,  and,  above  all,  about  being  unselfish  ? 
All  ethics,  all  human  action,  and  all  human  thought, 
hang  upon  this  one  idea  of  unselfishness;  the  whole 
idea   of   human    life    can   be    put   in    that    one  word, 
unselfishness.     Why  should  we  be   unselfish  ?     Where 
is  the   necessity,   the   force,  the   power,  of  my  being 
unselfish  ?     Why  should   I  be  ?      You    call   yourself  a 
rational  man,  a  utilitarian,  but,  if  you  do  not  show  me 
a  reason,    I    say   you    are    irrational.      Show    me    the 
reason  why  I  should  not  be  selfish,  why  I   should   not 
be  like  a  brute,   acting  without  reason  ?    It  may  be 


DHYANA   AND    SAMADHI.  JJ 

good  as  poetry,  but  poetry  is  not  reason.  Show  me  a 
reason.  Why  shall  I  be  unselfish,  and  why  be  good  ? 
Because  Mr.  and  Mrs.  So-and-so  say  so  does  not  weigh 
with  me.  Where  is  the  utility  of  my  being  unselfish  ? 
My  utility  is  to  be  selfish,  if  utility  means  the  greatest 
amount  of  happiness.  I  may  get  the  greatest  amount 
of  happiness  by  cheating  and  robbing  others.  What  is 
che  answer  ?  The  utilitarian  can  never  give  it.  The 
answer  is  that  this  world  is  only  one  drop  in  an 
infinite  ocean,  one  link  in  an  infinite  chain.  Where 
did  those  that  preached  unselfishness,  and  taught  it  to 
the  human  race,  get  this  idea  ?  We  know  it  is  not 
instinctive;  the  animals,  which  have  instinct,  do  not 
know  it.  Neither  is  it  reason;  reason  does  not  know 
anything  about  these  ideas.  Whence  did  they  come  ? 
We  find,  in  studying  history,  one  fact  held  in  com- 
mon by  all  the  great  teachers  of  religion  the  world 
ever  had;  they  all  claim  to  have  got  these  truths 
from  beyond,  only  many  of  them  did  not  know  what 
they  were  getting.  For  instance,  one  would  say  that 
an  angel  came  down  in  the  form  of  a  human  being, 
with  wings,  and  said  to  him,  "  Hear,  oh  man,  this  is 
the  message."  Another  says  that  a  Dcva^  a  bright 
being,  appeared  to  him.  Another  says  he  dreamed  that 
his  ancestor  came  and  told  him  all  these  things.  He 
did  not  know  anything  beyond  that.  But  this  thing  is 
common,  that  all  claim  either  that  they  saw  angels,  or 
heard  the  voice  of  God,  or  saw  some  wonderful  vision. 
All  claim  that  this  knowledge  has  come  to  them  from 
beyond,   not  through   their  reasoning  power.      What 


78  RAJA   YOGA. 

does  the  science  of  Yoga  teach  ?  It  teaches  that  they 
were  right  in  claiming  that  all  this  knowledge  came  to 
them  from  beyond  reasoning,  but  that  it  came  from 
within  themselves. 

The  Yogi  teaches  that  the  mind  itself  has  a  higher 
state  of  existence,  beyond  reason,  a  super-conscious 
state,  and  when  the  mind  gets  to  that  higher  state, 
then  this  knowledge,  beyond  reasoning,  comes  to  a 
man,  metaphysical  knowledge,  beyond  all  physical 
knowledge.  Metaphysical  and  transcendental  knowl- 
edge comes  to  that  man,  and  this  state  of  going  be- 
yond reason,  transcending  ordinary  human  nature, 
sometimes  may  come  by  chance  to  a  man  who  does  not 
understand  its  science;  he,  as  it  were,  stumbles  into 
it.  When  he  stumbles  into  it,  he  generally  interprets 
it  as  from  outside.  So  this  explains  why  an  inspira- 
tion, or  this  transcendental  knowledge,  may  be  the 
same  in  different  countries,  but  in  one  country  it  will 
seem  to  come  through  an  angel,  and  in  another  through 
a  Deva,  and  in  another  through  God.  What  does  it 
mean  ?  It  means  that  the  mind  brought  the  knowledge 
by  its  own  nature,  and  that  the  finding  of  the  knowl- 
edge was  interpreted  according  to  the  beliefs  and  edu- 
cation of  the  person  through  whom  it  came.  The  real 
fact  is  that  these  various  men,  as  it  were,  stumbled  into 
this  super-conscious  state. 

The  Yogi  says  there  is  a  great  danger  in  stumbling 
into  this  state.  In  a  good  many  cases  there  is  the 
danger  of  the  brain  being  destroyed,  and,  as  a  rule, 
you  will  find  that  all  those  men,  however  great  they 


DHYANA   AND    SAMADHI.  79 

were,  who  have  stumbled  into  this  super-conscious 
state,  without  understanding  it,  grope  in  the  dark,  and 
generally  have,  along  with  their  knowledge,  some 
quaint  superstition.  They  open  themselves  to  hallu- 
cinations. Mohammed  claimed  that  the  Angel  Gabriel 
came  to  him  in  a  cave  one  day  and  took  him  on  the 
heavenly  horse,  Harak,  and  he  visited  the  heavens. 
But,  with  all  that,  Mohammed  spoke  some  wonderful 
truths.  If  you  read  the  Qur'an,  you  find  the  most 
wonderful  truths  mixed  with  these  superstitions.  How 
will  you  explain  it  ?  That  man  was  inspired,  no  doubt, 
but  that  inspiration  was,  as  it  were,  stumbled  upon. 
He  was  not  a  trained  Yogi,  and  did  not  know  the  rea- 
son of  what  he  was  doing.  Think  of  the  good  Moham- 
med did  to  the  world,  and  think  of  the  great  evil  that 
has  been  done  through  his  fanaticism  !  Think  of  the 
millions  massacred  through  his  teachings,  mothers 
bereft  of  their  children,  children  made  orphans,  whole 
countries  destroyed,  millions  upon  millions  of  people 
killed! 

So  we  see  in  studying  the  lives  of  all  these  great 
teachers  that  there  was  this  danger.  Yet  we  find,  at 
the  same  time,  that  they  were  all  inspired.  Somehow 
or  other  they  got  into  the  super-conscious  state,  only 
whenever  a  prophet  got  into  that  state  by  simple  force 
of  emotion,  just  by  heightening  his  emotional  nature, 
he  brought  away  from  that  state  some  truths,  but  also 
some  fanaticism,  some  superstition  which  injured  the 
world  as  much  as  the  greatness  of  the  teaching  did 
good.     To  get  any  reason  out  of  this  mass  of  incon- 


8o  RAJA  YOGA. 

gruity  we  call  human  life  we  have  to   transcend  ouf 

reason,  but  we  must  do  it  scientifically,  slowly,  by 
regular  practice,  and  we  must  cast  off  all  superstition. 
We  must  take  it  up  just  as  any  other  science,  reason 
we  must  have  to  lay  our  foundation,  we  must  follow 
reason  as  far  as  it  leads,  and  when  reason  fails  reason 
itself  will  show  us  the  way  to  the  highest  plane.  So 
whenever  we  hear  a  man  say  "  I  am  inspired,  "and  then 
talk  the  most  irrational  nonsense,  simply  reject  it. 
AVhy  ?  Because  these  three  states  of  the  mind  —  in- 
stinct, reason,  and  super-consciousness,  or  the  uncon- 
scious, conscious,  and  super-conscious  states  —  belong 
to  one  and  the  same  mind.  There  are  not  three 
minds  in  one  man,  but  one  develops  into  the  other. 
Instinct  develops  into  reason,  and  reason  into  the 
transcendental  consciousness ;  therefore  one  never  con- 
tradicts the  other.  So,  whenever  you  meet  with  wild 
statements  which  contradict  human  reason  and  com- 
mon sense,  reject  them  without  any  fear,  because  the 
real  inspiration  will  never  contradict,  but  will  fulfil. 
Just  as  you  find  the  great  prophets  saying,  "  I  come 
not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil,"  so  this  inspiration  always 
comes  to  fulfil  reason,  and  is  in  direct  harmony  with 
reason,  and  whenever  it  contradicts  reason  you  must 
know  that  it  is  not  inspiration. 

All  the  different  steps  in  Yoga  are  intended  to  bring 
us  scientifically  to  the  super-conscious  state,  or  Sd/;i- 
ddhi.  Furthermore,  this  is  a  most  vital  point  to  under- 
stand that  inspiration  is  as  much  in  every  man's  nature 
as  it  was  in  the  ancient  prophets.     These  prophets 


dhyAna  and  samAdhi.  8i 

were  not  unique;  they  were  just  the  same  as  you  or  I. 
They  were  great  Yogis.  They  had  gained  this  super- 
consciousness,  and  you  and  I  can  get  the  same.  They 
were  not  peculiar  people.  The  very  fact  that  one  man 
ever  reached  that  state  will  prove  that  it  is  possible  for 
every  man  to  do  so.  Not  only  is  it  possible,  but  every 
man  must,  eventually,  get  to  that  state,  and  that  is 
religion.  Experience  is  the  only  teacher  we  have.  We 
may  talk  and  reason  all  our  lives,  without  ever  under- 
standing a  word  of  truth,  until  we  experience  it  our- 
selves. You  cannot  hope  to  make  a  man  a  surgeon  by 
simply  giving  him  a  few  books.  You  cannot  satisfy 
my  curiosity  to  see  a  country  by  showing  me  a  map;  i 
must  have  actual  experience.  Maps  can  only  create  a 
little  curiosity  in  us  to  get  more  perfect  knowledge. 
Beyond  that,  they  have  no  value  whatever.  All  cling- 
ing to  books  only  degenerates  the  human  mind.  Was 
thare  ever  a  more  horrible  blasphemy  than  to  say  that 
all  the  knowledge  of  God  is  confined  in  this  or  that 
book  ?  How  dare  men  call  God  infinite,  and  yet  try  to 
compress  Him  into  the  covers  of  a  little  book  !  Mil- 
lions of  people  have  been  killed  because  they  did  not 
believe  what  the  books  say,  because  they  would  not 
see  all  the  knowledge  of  God  within  the  covers  of  a 
book.  Of  course  this  killing  and  murdering  has  gone 
by,  but  the  world  is  still  tremendously  bound  up  in  a 
belief  in  books. 

In  order  to  reach  the  super-conscious  state  in  a  scien- 
tific manner  we  have  to  pass  through  these  various  steps 
that  I  have  been  teaching  you  in  Rdja    Yoga.     After 
6 


82  RAJA  YOGA. 

Pratydhdra  and  Dhdrand,  which  I  taught  you  in  the  last 
lecture,  we  come  to  Dhydna^  meditation.  When  the 
mind  has  been  trained  to  remain  fixed  on  a  certain 
internal  or  external  location,  there  comes  to  it  the 
power  of,  as  it  were,  flowing  m  an  unbroken  current 
towards  that  point.  This  state  is  called  Dhydna. 
When  this  power  of  Dhydna  has  been  so  much  intensi- 
fied as  to  be  able  to  reject  the  external  part  of  percep- 
tion, and  remain  meditating  only  on  the  internal  part, 
the  meaning,  that  state  is  called  Samddhi.  The  three  — 
Dhdrand,  Dhydna  and  Samddhi — together  are  called 
Samyama.  That  is,  if  the  mind  can  first  concentrate 
upon  an  object,  and  then  is  able  to  continue  in  that 
concentration  for  a  length  of  time,  and  then,  by  con- 
tinued concentration,  to  dwell  only  on  the  internal  part 
of  the  perception  of  which  the  object  was  the  effect, 
everything  comes  under  the  control  of  such  a  mind. 

This  meditative  state  is  the  highest  state  of  existence. 
So  long  as  there  is  desire  no  real  happiness  can  come. 
It  is  only  the  contemplative,  witness-like  study  of 
objects  that  brings  to  us  real  enjoyment  and  happiness. 
The  animal  has  its  happiness  in  the  senses,  the  man  in 
his  intellect,  and  the  God  in  spiritual  contemplation. 
It  is  only  to  the  soul  that  has  attained  to  this  contem- 
plative state  that  the  world  has  really  become  beautiful. 
To  him  who  desires  nothing,  and  does  not  mix  himself 
up  with  them,  the  manifold  changes  of  nature  are  one 
panorama  of  beauty  and  sublimity. 

These  ideas  have  to  be  understood  in  Dhydna,  or 
meditation.      We  hear  a  sound.      First  there  is  the 


dhyAna  and  samadhi.  S^ 

external  vibration,  second,  the  nerve  motion  that  car- 
ries it  to  the  mind,  third,  the  reaction  from  the  mind, 
along  with  which  flashes  the  knowledge  of  the  object 
which  was  the  external  cause  of  these  different  changes 
from  the  ethereal  vibrations  to  the  mental  reaction. 
These  three  are  called  in  Voga^  ^abdha  (sound)  Artha 
(meaning),  and  Jndna  (knowledge).  In  the  language 
of  physiology  they  are  called  the  ethereal  vibration, 
the  motion  in  the  nerve  and  brain,  and  the  mental 
reaction.  Now  these,  though  distinct  processes,  have 
become  mixed  up  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  become  quite 
indistinct.  In  fact,  we  cannot  now  perceive  any  of  these 
causes;  we  only  perceive  the  effect  of  these  three, 
which  effect  we  call  the  external  object.  Every  act 
of  perception  includes  these  three,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  not  be  able  to  distinguish  be- 
tween them. 

When,  by  the  previous  preparations,  the  mind 
becomes  strong  and  controlled,  and  the  power  of  finer 
perception  has  been  attained,  then  the  mind  should  be 
employed  in  meditation.  This  meditation  must  begin 
with  gross  objects  and  slowly  rise  to  finer,  then  to  finer 
and  finer,  until  it  has  become  objectless.  The  mind 
should  first  be  employed  in  perceiving  the  external 
causes  of  sensations,  then  the  internal  motions,  and 
then  the  reaction  of  the  mind.  When  it  has  succeeded 
in  perceiving  the  external  causes  of  sensations  by  them- 
selves it  will  acquire  the  power  of  perceiving  all  fine 
material  existences,  all  fine  bodies  and  forms.  When 
it  can  succeed  in  perceiving    the  motions  inside,  by 


84  RAJA    YOGA. 

themselves,  it  will  gain  the  control  of  all  mental  waves, 
in  itself  or  in  others,  even  before  they  have  translated 
themselves  into  physical  forces;  and  when  he  will  be 
able  to  perceive  the  mental  reaction  by  itself  the  Vagi 
will  acquire  the  knowledge  of  everything,  as  every 
sensible  object,  and  every  thought,  is  the  result  of  this 
reaction.  Then  will  he  have  seen,  as  it  were,  the  very 
foundations  of  his  mind,  and  it  will  be  under  his  per- 
fect control.  Different  powers  will  come  to  the  Vogf, 
and  if  he  yields  to  the  temptations  of  any  one  of  these 
the  road  to  his  further  progress  will  be  barred.  Such 
is  the  evil  of  running  after  enjoyments.  But,  if  he  is 
strong  enough  to  reject  even  these  miraculous  powers, 
he  will  attain  to  the  goal  of  Yoga,  the  complete  sup- 
pression of  the  waves  in  the  ocean  of  the  mind;  then 
the  glory  of  the  soul,  untrammelled  by  the  distractions 
of  the  mind,  or  the  motions  of  his  body,  will  shine  in 
its  full  effulgence.  And  the  Vogt  will  find  himself  as 
he  is  and  as  he  always  was,  the  essence  of  knowledge, 
the  immortal,  the  all-pervading. 

Samdd/iiis  the  property  of  every  human  being  —  nay, 
every  animal.  From  the  lowest  animal  to  the  highest 
angelic  being,  some  time  or  other  each  one  will  have 
to  come  to  that  state,  and  then,  and  then  alone,  will 
religion  begin  for  him.  And  all  this  time,  what  are  we 
doing?  We  are  only  struggling  towards  that  stage; 
there  is  now  no  difference  between  us  and  those  who 
have  no  religion,  because  we  have  had  no  experience. 
What  is  concentration  good  for,  save  to  bring  us  to  this 


DHYANA   AND    SAMADHI.  8$ 

experience?  Each  one  of  the  steps  to  attain  this 
Samddhi  has  been  reasoned  out,  properly  adjusted, 
scientifically  organised,  and,  when  faithfully  practised, 
will  surely  lead  u£  to  the  desired  end.  Then  will  all 
sorrows  cease,  all  miseries  vanish;  the  seeds  of  actions 
will  be  burned,  and  the  soul  will  be  free  for  ever. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

RAJA    YOGA    IN    BRIEF. 

This  is  a  summary  of  Raja  Yoga  freely  translated 
from  the  Kurma  Purdna. 

The  fire  of  Yoga  burns  the  cage  of  sin  that  is  around 
a  man.  Knowledge  becomes  purified,  and  Nirvana  is 
directly  obtained.  From  Yoga  comes  knowledge; 
knowledge  again  helps  the  Yogi.  He  who  is  a  com- 
pound of  both  Yoga  and  knowledge,  with  him  the  Lord 
is  pleased.  Those  that  practice  Mahdyoga^  either  once 
a  day,  or  twice  a  day,  or  thrice,  or  always,  know  them 
to  be  gods.  Yoga  is  divided  into  two  parts.  One  is  called 
the  Abhdva^  and  the  other  Mahdyoga.  Where  one*s 
self  is  meditated  upon  as  zero,  and  bereft  of  quality, 
that  is  called  Abhdva  ;  the  Yogt^  by  each  one,  realises 
his  Self.  That  in  which  one  sees  the  Self  as  full  of 
bliss  and  bereft  of  all  impurities,  and  one  with  God,  is 
called  Mahdyoga.  The  other  Yogas  that  we  read  and 
hear  of,  do  not  deserve  one  particle  of  this  great  Brah- 
mayoga^  in  which  the  Yogi  finds  himself  and  the  whole 
universe  as  God  himself.  This  is  the  highest  of  all 
Yogas. 

These  are  the  steps  in  Raja  Yoga.  Yama,  Niyamay 
Asana^  Prdndydma^  Prafydhdra,  Dhdrand,  Dhydna^  and 
Samddhif  of  which,  non-injuring  anybody,  truthfulness, 

[86] 


rAja  yoga  in  brief.  87 

non-covetousness,    chastity,    not    receiving   anything 
from  another,  are  called  Yama ;  it  purifies  the  mind, 
the  Chitta.     By  thought,  word,  and  deed,  always,  and 
in   every   living  being,  not  producing  pain  is  what  is 
called  A/iif?isa,  non-injuring.     There  is  no  virtue  higher 
than  this  non-injuring.     There  is  no  happiness  higher 
than  what  a  man  obtains  by  this  attitude  of  non-offen- 
siveness  to  all  creation.     By  truth  we  attain  to  work. 
Through  truth  everything  is  attained;  in  truth  every- 
thing is  established.     Relating  facts  as  they  are;  this 
is  truth.     Not  taking  others'  goods  by  stealth  or  by 
force,    is  called  Asteya??iy   non-covetousness.     Chastity 
in  thought,  word,  and  deed,  always,  and  in  all  condi- 
tions, is  what  is  called  Brahmacharya.     Not  receiving 
any  present  from  anybody,  even  when  one  is  suffering 
terribly,   is  what  is  called  Aparigraha.    When  a  man 
receives  a  gift  from  another  man,  the  theory  is  that  his 
heart  becomes  impure,  he  becomes  low,  he  loses  his 
independence,  he  becomes  bound  and  attached.     The 
following  are  helps  to  success  in  Yoga.    Niyama^  regular 
habits  and  observances;    Tapas^   austerity;  Svddhydya^ 
study;   6'a///<?/^,  contentment;  Saucha)7i^^\ix\\.y\  liwara 
prariidhdna.,    worshipping  God.       Fasting,    or  in   other 
ways  controlling  the  body,  is  called  the  physical  Tapas. 
Repeating  the  Vedas,  and  other  Matitrams^  by  which 
the  Sattva    material    in   the  body  is  purified,  is  called 
study,  Svddhydya.     There  are  three  sorts  of  repetitions 
of  these  Mafitrams.     One  is  called  the  verbal,  another 
semi-verbal,    and   the   third    mental.      The    verbal    or 
audible  is  the  lowest,  and  the  inaudible  is  the  highest 


88  RAJA   YOGA. 

of  all.  The  repetition  which  is  so  loud  that  anybody 
can  hear  it  is  the  verbal;  the  next  one  is  where  only 
the  organs  begin  to  vibrate,  but  no  sound  is  heard; 
another  man  sitting  near  cannot  hear  what  is  being 
said.  That  in  which  there  is  no  sound,  only  mental 
repetition  of  the  Mantram^  at  the  same  time  thinking 
of  its  meaning,  is  called  the  "  mental  muttering,"  and 
is  the  highest.  The  sages  have  said  that  there  are  two 
sorts  of  purification,  external  and  internal.  The  puri- 
fication for  the  body  is  by  water,  earth,  or  other  mate- 
rials; the  external  purification,  as  by  bathing,  etc. 
Purification  of  the  mind  by  truth,  and  by  all  the  other 
virtues,  is  what  is  called  internal  purification.  Both 
are  necessary.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  a  man  should 
be  internally  pure  and  externally  dirty.  When  both 
are  not  attainable  the  internal  purity  is  the  better,  but 
no  one  will  be  a  Yogi  until  he  has  both. 

Worship  is  by  praise,  by  memory,  having  devotion 
to  God.  We  have  spoken  about  Yama  and  Niyania ; 
next  comes  Prdndydttia,  Prdna  means  the  vital  forces 
in  one's  own  body,  Yama  means  controlling  them. 
There  are  three  sorts  oi'  Frdndydf?ia,  the  very  simple, 
the  middle,  and  the  very  high.  The  whole  of  Prdnd- 
ydma  is  divided  into  two  parts;  one  is  called  filling, 
and  the  other  is  called  emptying.  When  you  begin 
with  twelve  seconds  it  is  the  lowest  Prdndydma  ;  when 
you  begin  with  twenty-four  seconds  it  is  the  middle 
Prdndydma  ;  that  Prdndydma  is  the  best  which  begins 
with  thirty-six  seconds.  That  Prdndydma  in  which 
there  is  first  perspiration,  then  vibration  of  the  body, 


rAja  yoga  in  brief.  S9 

and  then  rising  from  the  seat  and  joining  of  the  man's 
soul  with  great  bliss  is  the  very  highest  Prdndydma, 
There  is  a  Mantram  called  the  Gdyatri.  It  is  a  very- 
holy  verse  of  the  Vedas,  "  We  meditate  on  the  glory 
of  that  Being  who  has  produced  this  universe;  may 
He  enlighten  our  minds."  Then  Om  is  joined  to  it,  at 
the  beginning  and  end.  In  one  Frdmiydma  repeat 
three  Gdyatris.  In  all  books  they  speak  of  Prdndydma 
being  divided  into  Rechaka  (rejecting  or  exhaling), 
PHraka  (inhaling),  and  Ku?nbhaka  (restraining,  station- 
ary). The  IndriyaSj  the  organs  of  the  senses,  are 
acting  outwards  and  coming  in  contact  with  external 
objects.  Bringing  them  under  the  control  of  the  will 
is  what  is  called  Pratydhdra  j  gathering  towards  one» 
self  is  the  literal  translation. 

Fixing  the  mind  on  the  lotus  of  the  heart,  or  on  the 
centre  of  the  head,  is  what  is  called  DJidrand.  When 
remaining  in  one  place,  making  one  place  as  the  base, 
when  the  waves  of  the  mind  rise  up,  without  being 
touched  by  other  waves  —  when  all  other  waves  have 
stopped  —  and  one  wave  only  rises  in  the  mind,  that  is 
called  Dhydna,  meditation.  When  no  basis  is  neces- 
sary, when  the  whole  of  the  mind  has  become  one 
wave,  **  one-formedness,"  it  is  called  Samddhi.  Bereft 
of  all  help  from  places  and  centres,  only  the  meaning 
of  the  thing  is  present.  If  the  mind  can  be  fixed  on 
one  centre  for  twelve  seconds  it  will  be  a  Dhdrand, 
twelve  such  Dhdrands  will  be  a  Dhydna^  and  twelve 
such  Dhydtias  will  be  a  Samddhi.  The  next  is  Asana 
(posture).     The  only  thing  to  understand  is  to  hold 


90  rAja  yoga. 

the  body  straight,  leaving  the  body  free,  with  the 
chest,  shoulders,  and  head  straight.  Where  there  is 
fire,  or  in  water,  or  on  ground  which  is  strewn  with  dry 
leaves,  or  where  there  are  wild  animals,  where  four 
streets  meet,  or  where  there  is  too  much  noise,  or  too 
much  fear,  or  too  many  ant  hills,  where  there  are  many 
wicked  persons.  Yoga  must  not  be  practiced  in  such 
places.  This  applies  more  particularly  to  India. 
When  the  body  feels  very  lazy  do  not  practise,  or 
when  the  mind  is  very  miserable  and  sorrowful,  or 
when  the  body  is  ill.  Go  to  a  place  which  is  well  hid- 
den, and  where  people  do  not  come  to  disturb  you. 
As  soon  as  you  do  not  want  people  to  know  what  you 
are  doing  all  the  curiosity  in  the  world  will  be  awakened, 
but,  if  you  go  into  the  street  and  want  people  to  know 
what  you  are  doing,  they  will  not  care.  Do  not  choose 
dirty  places.  Rather  choose  beautiful  scenery,  or  a 
room  in  your  own  house  which  is  beautiful.  When 
you  practise,  first  salute  all  the  ancient  Yogis,  and  your 
own  Guri^,  and  God,  and  then  begin. 

Dhyd7ia  is  spoken  of,  and  a  few  examples  are  given 
of  what  to  meditate  upon.  Sit  straight,  and  look  at 
the  tip  of  your  nose.  Later  on  we  will  come  to  know 
how  that  concentrates  the  mind,  how  by  controlling 
the  two  optic  nerves  one  advances  a  long  way  towards 
the  control  of  the  arc  of  reaction,  and  so  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  will.  These  are  a  few  specimens  of  medita- 
tion. Imagine  a  lotus  upon  the  top  of  the  head, 
several  inches  up,  and  virtue  as  its  centre,  the  stalk  as 
knowledge.      The  eight  petals   of   the   lotus   are  the 


RAJA   YOGA   IN   BRIEF.  9I 

eight  powers  of  the  Yogi.  Inside,  the  stamens  and 
pistils  are  renunciation.  If  the  Yogi  refuses  the  exter- 
nal powers  he  will  come  to  salvation.  So  the  eight 
petals  of  the  lotus  are  the  eight  powers,  but  the  inter- 
nal stamens  and  pistils  are  the  extreme  renunciation, 
the  renunciation  of  all  these.  Inside  of  that  lotus 
think  of  the  Golden  One,  the  Almighty,  the  Intangible, 
He  whose  name  is  Om^  the  Inexpressible,  surrounded 
with  effulgent  light.  Meditate  on  that.  Another 
meditation  is  given.  Think  of  a  space  in  your  heart, 
and  in  the  midst  of  that  space  think  that  a  flame  is 
burning.  Think  of  that  flame  as  your  own  soul,  and 
inside  that  flame  is  another  space,  effulgent,  and  that 
is  the  Soul  of  your  soul,  God.  Meditate  upon  that  in 
the  heart.  Chastity,  non-injuring,  pardoning  everyone, 
even  the  greatest  enemy,  truth,  faith  in  the  Lord,  these 
are  all  different  Vrittis.  Be  not  afraid  if  you  are  not 
perfect  in  all  of  these;  work,  and  the  others  will  come. 
He  who  has  given  up  all  attachment,  all  fear,  and  all 
anger,  he  whose  whole  soul  has  gone  unto  the  Lord,  he 
who  has  taken  refuge  in  the  Lord,  whose  heart  has 
become  purified,  with  whatsoever  desire  he  comes  to 
the  Lord  He  will  grant  that  to  him.  Therefore  wor- 
ship Him  through  knowledge,  or  worship  Him  through 
love,  or  worship  Him  through  renunciation. 

"  He  is  my  beloved  worshipper,  he  is  my  beloved 
Bhakta^  who  is  not  jealous  of  any  being,  who  is  the 
friend  of  all,  who  is  merciful  to  all,  who  has  nothing  of 
his  own,  whose  egotism  is  lost;  he  who  is  always  satis- 
fied;   he  who  works  always  in    Yoga^  whose   self   has 


Q2  RAJA   YOGA. 

become  controlled,  whose  will  is  firm,  whose  mind  and 
whose  intelligence  are  given  up  unto  me,  know  that  he 
is  my  beloved  Bhakta.  From  whom  comes  no  disturb- 
ance, who  never  becomes  the  cause  of  disturbance  to 
others,  he  who  has  given  up  excessive  joy,  grief,  and 
fear,  and  anxiety.  Such  a  one  is  my  beloved.  He 
who  does  not  depend  on  anything,  pure,  active,  giving 
up  all,  who  does  not  care  whether  good  comes  or  evil, 
never  becomes  miserable;  he  who  is  the  same  in  praise 
or  in  blame,  with  a  silent,  thoughtful  mind,  blessed 
with  what  little  comes  in  his  way,  homeless,  he  who 
has  no  home,  the  whole  world  is  his  home,  steady  in 
his  ideas,  such  a  one  becomes  a  Yogi.'' 

There  was  a  great  god-sage  called  Ndrada.  Just  as 
there  are  sages  among  mankind,  great  Yogis^  so  there  are 
great  Yogis  among  the  gods.  Ndrada  was  a  good  Yogi^ 
and  very  great.  He  travelled  everywhere,  and  one 
day  he  was  passing  through  a  forest,  and  he  saw  a  man 
who  had  been  meditating  until  the  white  ants  had  built 
a  huge  mound  round  his  body,  he  had  been  sitting  in 
that  position  so  long.  He  said  to  Ndrada^  **  Where  are 
you  going?"  Ndrada  replied,  "I  am  going  to 
heaven."  *'  Then  ask  God  when  He  will  be  merciful 
to  me;  when  I  will  attain  freedom."  Further  on 
Ndrada  saw  another  man.  He  was  jumping  about, 
singing,  dancing,  and  said,  "  Oh,  Ndrada^  where  are 
you  going  ?  "  His  voice  and  his  gestures  were  wild. 
Ndrada  said,  "  I  am  going  to  heaven."  "  Then,  ask 
when  I  will  be  free."  So  Ndrada  went  on.  In  the 
course  of  time  he  came  again  by  the  same  road,  and 


RAJA   YOGA   IN    BRIEF.  93 

there  was  the  man  who  had  been  meditating  till  the 
ant-hills  had  grown  round  him.  He  said,  "  Oh, 
Ndrada,  did  you  ask  the  Lord  about  me  ?  "  "  Oh, 
yes."  "What  did  He  say?"  "The  Lord  told  me 
that  you  would  attain  freedom  in  four  more  births." 
Then  the  man  began  to  weep  and  wail,  and  said,  "  I 
have  meditated  until  an  ant-hill  has  been  raised 
around  me,  and  I  have  four  more  births  yet  !  " 
Ndrada  went  to  the  other  man.  "  Did  you  ask  my 
question  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes.  Do  you  see  this  tamarind 
tree  ?  I  have  to  tell  you  that  as  many  leaves  as  there 
are  on  that  tree,  so  many  times  you  will  be  born,  and 
then  you  will  attain  freedom."  Then  the  man  began 
to  dance  for  joy,  and  said,  "  I  will  have  freedom 
after  such  a  short  time."  A  voice  came,  "  My  child, 
you  will  have  freedom  this  minute."  That  was  the 
reward  for  his  perseverance.  He  was  ready  to  work 
through  all  those  births,  nothing  discouraged  him. 
But  the  first  man  felt  that  even  four  more  births  must 
be  too  long.  Only  perseverance  like  that  of  the  man 
who  was  willing  to  wait  aeons  will  bring  about  the 
highest  result. 


PATANJALI'S 

YOGA  APHORISMS 


PATANJALI'S 
YOGA     APHORISMS 


INTRODUCTION. 

Before  going  into  the  Yoga  Aphorisms  I  will  try  to 
discuss  one  great  question,  upon  which  the  whole 
theory  of  religion  rests,  for  the  Yogis.  It  seems  the 
consensus  of  opinion  of  the  great  minds  of  the  world, 
and  it  has  been  nearly  demonstrated  by  researches 
into  physical  nature,  that  we  are  the  outcome  and 
manifestation  of  an  absolute  condition,  back  of  our 
present  relative  condition,  and  are  going  forward,  to 
return  again  to  that  absolute.  This  being  granted, 
the  question  is,  which  is  better,  the  absolute  or  this 
state?  There  are  not  wanting  people  who  think  that 
this  manifested  state  is  the  highest  state  of  man. 
Thinkers  of  great  calibre  are  of  the  opinion  that  we  are 
manifested  specimens  of  undifferentiated  being,  and 
this  differentiated  state  is  higher  than  the  absolute. 
Because  in  the  absolute  there  cannot  be  any  quality 
they  imagine  that  it  must  be  insensate,  dull,  and  lifeless, 
that  only  this  life  can  be  enjoyed,  and  therefore  we 
must  cling  to  it.  First  of  all  we  want  to  inquire  into 
other  solutions  of  life.  There  was  an  old  solution  that 
7  [97] 


98  rAja  yoga. 

man  after  death  remained  the  same,  that  all  his  good 
sides,  minus  his  evil  sides,  remained  for  ever.  Log- 
ically stated  this  means  that  man's  goal  is  the  world; 
this  world  carried  a  stage  higher,  and  with  elimination 
of  its  evils  is  the  state  they  call  heaven.  This  theory, 
on  the  face  of  it,  is  absurd  and  puerile,  because  it  can- 
not be.  There  cannot  be  good  without  evil,  or  evil 
without  good.  To  live  in  a  world  where  it  is  all  good 
and  no  evil  is  what  Sanskrit  logicians  call  a  "  dream  in 
the  air."  Another  theory  in  modern  times  has  been 
presented  by  several  schools,  that  man's  destiny  is  to 
go  on  always  improving,  always  struggling  towards,  and 
never  reaching,  the  goal.  This  statement,  though, 
apparently,  very  nice,  is  also  absurd,  because  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  motion  in  a  straight  line.  Every 
motion  is  in  a  circle.  If  you  could  take  up  a  stone,  and 
project  it  into  space,  and  then  live  long  enough,  that 
stone  would  come  back  exactly  to  your  hand.  A 
straight  line,  infinitely  projected,  must  end  in  a  circle. 
Therefore,  this  idea  that  the  destiny  of  man  is  progres- 
sion ever  forward  and  forward,  and  never  stopping,  is 
absurd.  Although  extraneous  to  the  subject,  I  may 
remark  that  this  idea  explains  the  ethical  theory  that 
you  must  not  hate,  and  must  love,  because,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  electricity,  or  any  other  force,  the  modern 
theory  is  that  the  power  leaves  the  dynamo  and  com- 
pletes the  circle  back  to  the  dynamo.  So  with  all  forces 
in  nature;  they  must  come  back  to  the  source.  There- 
fore do  not  hate  anybody,  because  that  force,  that 
hatred,  which  comes  out  from  you,  must,  in  the  long 


INTRODUCTION.  99 

run,  come  back  to  you.  If  you  love,  that  love  will 
come  back  to  you,  completing  the  circuit.  It  is  as  cer- 
tain as  can  be,  that  every  bit  of  hatred  that  goes  out 
of  the  heart  of  man  comes  back  to  him  in  full  force; 
nothing  can  stop  it,  and  every  impulse  of  love  comes 
back  to  him.  On  other  and  practical  grounds  we  see 
that  the  theory  of  eternal  progression  is  untenable,  for 
destruction  is  the  goal  t)f  everything  earthly.  All  our 
struggles  and  hopes  and  fears  and  joys,  what  will  they 
lead  to?  We  will  all  end  in  death.  Nothing  is  so  cer- 
tain as  this.  Where,  then,  is  this  motion  in  a  straight 
line?  This  infinite  progression?  It  is  only  going  out 
to  a  distance,  and  again  coming  back  to  the  centre  from 
which  it  started.  See  how,  from  nebulae,  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  are  produced;  then  they  dissolve, 
and  go  back  to  nebulae.  The  same  is  being  done  every- 
where. The  plant  takes  material  from  the  earth,  dis- 
solves, and  gives  it  back.  Every  form  in  this  world  is 
taken  out  of  surrounding  atoms  and  goes  back  to 
these  atoms. 

It  cannot  be  that  the  same  law  acts  differently  in 
different  places.  Law  is  uniform.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that.  If  this  is  the  law  of  nature,  so  it  is 
with  thought;  it  will  dissolve  and  come  back  to  its 
origin  ;  whether  we  will  it  or  not  we  shall  have  to  return 
to  the  origin,  which  is  called  God  or  Absolute.  We 
all  came  from  God,  and  we  are  all  bound  to  go  to  God, 
call  that  God  by  any  name  you  like;  call  Him  God,  or 
Absolute  or  Nature,  or  by  any  hundred  names  you  like, 
the  fact  remains  the  same.      "  From  whom  all  this  uni- 


lOO  RAJA   YOGA. 

verse  comes  out,  in  whom  all  that  is  born  lives,  and  to 
whom  all  returns."  This  is  one  fact  that  is  certain. 
Nature  works  on  the  same  plan;  what  is  being  worked 
out  in  one  sphere  is  being  worked  out  in  millions  of 
spheres.  What  you  see  with  the  planets,  the  same 
will  it  be  with  this  earth,  with  men  and  with  the  stars. 
The  huge  wave  is  a  mighty  compound  of  small  waves, 
it  may  be  of  millions;  the  life  of  the  whole  world  is  a 
compound  of  millions  of  little  lives,  and  the  death  of 
the  whole  world  is  the  compound  of  the  deaths  of  these 
millions  of  little  beings. 

Now  the  question  arises,  is  going  back  to  God  the 
higher  state,  or  is  it  not?  The  philosophers  of  the 
Yoga  school  emphatically  answer  that  it  is.  They  say 
that  man's  present  state  is  a  degeneration;  there  is  no 
one  religion  on  the  face  of  the  earth  which  says  that 
man  is  an  improvement.  The  idea  is  that  his  beginning 
is  perfect  and  pure,  that  he  degenerates  until  he  cannot 
degenerate  further,  and  that  there  must  come  a  time 
when  he  shoots  upward  again  to  complete  the  circle; 
the  circle  must  be  there.  However  low  he  goes,  he 
must  ultimately  take  the  upward  bend  again,  and  go 
back  to  the  original  source,  which  is  God.  Man  comes 
from  God  in  the  beginning,  in  the  middle  he  becomes 
man,  and  in  the  end  he  goes  back  to  God.  This  is  the 
method  of  putting  it  in  the  Dualistic  form.  In  the 
Monistic  form  you  say  that  man  is  God,  and  goes  back 
to  Him  again.  If  our  present  state  is  the  higher  one, 
then  why  is  there  so  much  horror  and  misery,  and  why 
is  there  an  end  to  it?     If  this  is  the  higher  state,  why 


INTRODUCTION.  lOI 

does  it  end?  Thct  which  corrupts  and  degenerates 
cannot  be  the  highest  state.  Why  should  it  be  so  dia- 
bolical, so  unsatisfying?  It  is  only  excusable,  inas- 
much as,  through  it,  we  are  taking  a  higher  groove; 
we  have  to  pass  through  it  in  order  to  become  regene- 
rate again.  Put  a  seed  into  the  ground  and  it  disin- 
tegrates, dissolves  after  a  time,  and  out  of  that 
dissolution  comes  the  splendid  tree.  Every  seed  must 
degenerate  to  become  the  stately  tree.  So  it  follows 
that  the  sooner  we  get  out  of  this  state  we  call  "man" 
the  better  for  us.  Is  it  by  committing  suicide  that  we 
get  out  of  this  state?  Not  at  all.  That  will  be  making 
it  all  the  worse.  Torturing  ourselves,  or  condemning 
the  world,  is  not  the  way  to  get  out.  We  have  to  pass 
through  the  "  Slough  of  Despond,"  and  the  sooner  we 
are  through  the  better.  But  it  must  always  be  remeir 
bered  that  this  is  not  the  highest  state. 

The  really  difficult  part  to  understand  is  that  this 
state,  the  Absolute,  which  has  been  called  the  highest, 
is  not,  as  some  fear,  that  of  the  zoophite,  or  of  the 
stone.  That  would  be  a  dangerous  thing  to  think. 
According  to  these  thinkers  there  are  only  two  states 
of  existence,  one  of  the  stone,  and  the  other  of  thought. 
What  right  have  they  to  limit  existence  to  these  two? 
Is  there  not  something  infinitely  superior  to  thought? 
The  vibrations  of  light,  when  they  are  very  low,  we  do 
not  see;  when  they  become  a  little  more  intense  they 
become  light  to  us;  when  they  become  still  more 
intense  we  do  not  see  them;  it  is  dark  to  us.  Is  the 
darkness   in   the   end  the   same  as  in  the  beginning? 


I02  RAJA   YOGA. 

Certainly  not;  it  is  the  difference  of  the  two  poles.  Is 
the  thoughtlessness  of  the  stone  the  same  as  the 
thoughtlessness  of  God?  Certainly  not.  God  does 
not  think;  He  does  not  reason;  why  should  He?  Is 
anything  unknown  to  Him,  that  He  should  reason? 
The  stone  cannot  reason;  God  does  not.  Such  is  the 
difference.  These  philosophers  think  it  is  awful  if  we 
go  beyond  thought;  they  find  nothing  beyond  thought. 

There  are  much  higher  states  of  existence  beyond 
reasoning.  It  is  really  beyond  the  intellect  that  the  first 
state  of  religious  life  is  to  be  found.  When  you  step 
beyond  thought  and  intellect  and  all  reasoning,  then 
you  have  made  the  first  step  towards  God ;  and  that  is 
the  beginning  of  life.  This  that  is  commonly  called 
life  is  but  an  embryo  state. 

The  next  question  will  be,  what  proof  is  there  that 
this  state  beyond  thought  and  reasoning  is  the  highest 
state?  In  the  first  place,  all  the  great  men  of  the 
world,  much  greater  than  those  that  only  talk,  men 
who  moved  the  world,  men  who  never  thought  of  any 
selfish  ends  whatever,  have  declared  that  this  is 
but  a  little  stage  on  the  way,  that  the  Infinite  is 
beyond.  In  the  second  place,  they  not  only  say  so, 
but  lay  it  open  to  everyone,  they  leave  their  methods, 
and  all  can  follow  in  their  steps.  In  the  third  place, 
there  is  no  other  way  left.  There  is  no  other  explana- 
tion. Taking  for  granted  that  there  is  no  higher 
state,  why  are  we  going  through  this  circle  all  the 
time;  what  reason  can  explain  the  world?  The  sensi- 
ble will  be  the  limit  to  our  knowledge  if  we  cannot  go 


INTRODUCTION.  IO3 

farther,  if  we  must  not  ask  for  anything  more.  This 
is  what  is  called  agnosticism.  But  what  reason  is  there 
to  believe  in  the  testimony  of  the  senses?  I  would  call 
that  man  a  true  agnostic  who  would  stand  still  in  the 
street  and  die.  If  reason  is  all  in  all  it  leaves  us  no 
place  to  stand  on  this  side  of  nihilism.  If  a  man  is 
agnostic  of  everything  but  money,  fame  and  name,  he 
is  only  a  fraud.  Kant  has  proved  beyond  all  doubt 
that  we  cannot  penetrate  beyond  the  tremendous  dead 
wall  called  reason.  But  that  is  the  very  first  idea  upon 
which  all  Indian  thought  takes  its  stand,  and  dares  to 
seek,  and  succeeds  in  finding  something  higher  than 
reason,  where  alone  the  explanation  of  the  present 
state  is  to  be  found.  This  is  the  value  of  the  study  of 
something  that  will  take  us  beyond  the  world.  "  Thou 
art  our  Father,  and  wilt  take  us  to  the  other  shore  of 
this  ocean  of  ignorance;"  that  is  the  science  of  religion; 
nothing  else  can  be. 


THE   YOGA   APHORISMS 


CHAPTER   I. 


1.  Now  concentration  is  explained. 

2.  Yoga  is  restraining  the  mind-stuff  (Chitta)  from 

taking  various  forms  (Vrittis). 

A  good  deal  of  explanation  is  necessary  here.  We 
have  to  understand  what  Chitta  is,  and  what  are  these 
Vrittis.  I  have  this  eye.  Eyes  do  not  see.  Take 
away  the  brain  centre  which  is  in  the  head,  the  eyes 
will  still  be  there,  the  retinae  complete,  and  also  the 
picture,  and  yet  the  eyes  will  not  see.  So  the  eyes  are 
only  a  secondary  instrument,  not  the  organ  of  vision. 
The  organ  of  vision  is  in  the  nerve  centre  of  the  brain. 
The  two  eyes  will  not  be  sufficient  alone.  Sometimes 
a  man  is  asleep  with  his  eyes  open.  The  light  is  there 
and  the  picture  is  there,  but  a  third  thing  is  necessary; 
mind  must  be  joined  to  the  organ.  The  eye  is  the 
external  instrument,  we  need  also  the  brain  centre  and 
the  agency  of  the  mind.  Carriages  roll  down  a  street 
and  you  do  not  hear  them.  Why?  Because  your  mind 
has  not  attached  itself  to  the  organ  of  hearing.  First, 
there  is  the  instrument,  then  there  is  the  organ,  and 
third,  the  mind  attachment  to  these  two.     The  mind 

[104] 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  105 

takes  the  impression  farther  in,  and  presents  it  to  the 
determinative  faculty  —  Buddhi — which  reacts.  Along 
with  this  reaction  flashes  the  idea  of  egoism.  Then 
this  mixture  of  action  and  reaction  is  presented  to  the 
Puruia^  the  real  Soul,  who  perceives  an  object  in  this 
mixture.  The  organs  (Indriyas),  together  with  the 
mind  [Manas),  the  determinative  faculty  {Buddhi)^ 
and  egoism  {Ahat?ikdra),  form  the  group  called  the 
Antahkarana  (the  internal  instrument).  They  are  but 
various  processes  in  the  mind-stuff,  called  Chitta,  The 
waves  of  thought  in  the  Chitta  are  called  ^r//// ("the 
whirlpool"  is  the  literal  translation).  What  is  thought? 
Thought  is  a  force,  as  is  gravitation  or  repulsion.  It 
is  absorbed  from  the  infinite  storehouse  of  force  in 
nature;  the  instrument  called  Chiita  takes  hold  of  that 
force,  and,  when  it  passes  out  at  the  other  end  it  is 
called  thought.  This  force  is  supplied  to  us  through 
food,  and  out  of  that  food  the  body  obtains  the  power 
of  motion,  etc.  Others,  the  finer  forces,  it  throws  out 
in  what  we  call  thought.  Naturally  we  see  that  the 
mind  is  not  intelligent;  yet  it  appears  to  be  intelligent. 
Why?  Because  the  intelligent  soul  is  behind  it.  You 
are  the  only  sentient  being;  mind  is  only  the  instru- 
ment through  which  you  catch  the  external  world. 
Take  this  book;  as  a  book  it  does  not  exist  outside, 
what  exists  outside  is  unknown  and  unknowable.  It  is 
the  suggestion  that  gives  a  blow  to  the  mind,  and  the 
mind  gives  out  the  reaction.  If  a  stone  is  thrown  into 
the  water  the  water  is  thrown  against  it  in  the  form  of 
waves      The  real  universe  is  the  occasion  of  the  reac- 


Io6  RAJA   YOGA. 

tion  of  the  mind.  A  book  form,  or  an  elephant  form, 
or  a  man  form,  is  not  outside;  all  that  we  know  is  our 
mental  reaction  from  the  outer  suggestion.  Matter  is 
the  "permanent  possibility  of  sensation,"  said  John 
Stuart  Mill.  It  is  only  the  suggestion  that  is  outside. 
Take  an  oyster  for  example.  You  know  how  pearls 
are  made.  A  grain  of  sand  or  something  gets  inside 
and  begins  to  irritate  it,  and  the  oyster  throws  a  sort 
of  enamelling  around  the  sand,  and  this  makes  the 
pearl.  This  whole  universe  is  our  own  enamel,  so  to 
say,  and  the  real  universe  is  the  grain  of  sand.  The 
ordinary  man  will  never  understand  it,  because,  when 
he  tries  to,  he  throws  out  an  enamel,  and  sees  only  his 
own  enamel.  Now  we  understand  what  is  meant  by 
these  Vrittis.  The  real  man  is  behind  the  mind,  and 
the  mind  is  the  instrument  in  his  hands,  and  it  is  his 
intelligence  that  is  percolating  through  it.  It  is  only 
when  you  stand  behind  it  that  it  becomes  intelligent. 
When  man  gives  it  up  it  falls  to  pieces,  and  is  nothing. 
So  you  understand  what  is  meant  by  Chitta.  It  is  the 
mind-stuff,  and  Vrittis  are  the  waves  and  ripples  rising 
in  it  when  external  causes  impinge  on  it.  These  Vrittis 
are  our  whole  universe. 

The  bottom  of  the  lake  we  cannot  see,  because  its 
surface  is  covered  with  ripples.  It  is  only  possible 
when  the  ripples  have  subsided,  and  the  water  is  calm, 
for  us  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  bottom.  If  the  water 
is  muddy,  the  bottom  will  not  be  seen;  if  the  water  is 
agitated  all  the  time,  the  bottom  will  not  be  seen.  If 
the  water  is  clear,  and  there  are  no  waves,  we  shall 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I07 

see  the  bottom.  That  bottom  of  the  lake  is  our  own 
true  Self;  the  lake  is  the  Chitta^  and  the  waves  the 
Vrittis.  Again,  this  mind  is  in  three  states;  one  is 
darkness,  which  is  called  Tamas^  just  as  in  brutes  and 
idiots;  it  only  acts  to  injure  others.  No  other  idea 
comes  into  that  state  of  mind.  Then  there  is  the 
active  state  of  mind.  Rajas ^  whose  chief  motives  are 
power  and  enjoyment.  "  I  will  be  powerful  and  rule 
others."  Then,  at  last,  when  the  waves  cease,  and 
the  water  of  the  lake  becomes  clear,  there  is  the 
state  called  Sattva^  serenity,  calmness.  It  is  not  inac- 
tive, but  rather  intensely  active.  It  is  the  greatest 
manifestation  of  power  to  be  calm.  It  is  easy  to  be 
active.  Let  the  reins  go,  and  the  horses  will  drag 
you  down.  Any  one  can  do  that,  but  he  who  can  stop 
the  plunging  horses  is  the  strong  man.  Which  requires 
the  greater  strength,  letting  go,  or  restraining?  The 
calm  man  is  not  the  man  who  is  dull.  You  must  not 
mistake  Sattva  for  dulness,  or  laziness.  The  calm 
man  is  the  one  who  has  restraint  of  these  waves.  Ac- 
tivity is  the  manifestation  of  the  lower  strength,  calm- 
ness of  the  superior  strength. 

This  Chitta  is  always  trying  to  get  back  to  its  natural 
pure  state,  but  the  organs  draw  it  out.  To  restrain 
it,  and  to  check  this  outward  tendency,  and  to  start  it 
on  the  return  journey  to  that  essence  of  intelligence 
is  the  first  step  in  Yoga^  because  only  in  this  way  can 
the  Chitta  get  into  its  proper  course. 

Although  this  Chitta  is  in  every  animal,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  it  is  only  in  the  human  form  that 


I08  RAJA   YOGA. 

we  find  intellect,  and  until  the  mind-stuff  can  take  the 
form  of  intellect  it  is  not  possible  for  it  to  return 
through  all  these  steps,  and  liberate  the  soul.  Imme- 
diate salvation  is  impossible  for  the  cow  and  the  dog, 
although  they  have  mind,  because  their  Chitta  cannot 
as  yet  take  that  form  which  we  call  intellect. 

Chitta  manifests  itself  in  all  these  different  forms 

scattering,  darkening,  weakening,  and  concentrating. 
These  are  tjie  four  states  in  which  the  mind-stuff  mani- 
fests itself.  First  a  scattered  form,  is  activity.  Its 
tendency  is  to  manifest  in  the  form  of  pleasure  or  of 
pain.  Then  the  dull  form  is  darkness,  the  only  ten- 
dency of  which  is  to  injure  others.  The  commentator 
says  the  first  form  is  natural  to  the  Devas,  the  angels, 
and  the  second  is  the  demoniacal  form.  Vikshipta  is 
when  it  struggles  to  centre  itself.  The  Ekdgra,  the 
concentrated  form  of  the  Chitta^  is  what  brings  us  to 
Samddhi. 

3.  At  that  time  (the  time  of  concentration)  the  seer 
(the  Purusa)  rests  in  his  own  (unmodified) 
state. 

As  soon  as  the  waves  have  stopped,  and  the  lake  has 
become  quiet,  we  see  the  ground  below  the  lake.  So 
with  the  mind;  when  it  is  calm,  we  see  what  our  own 
nature  is;  we  do  not  mix  ourselves  but  remain  our 
own  selves. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  109 

4.  At  other  times   (other  than  that  of  oonoentra- 

tion)  the  seer  is  identified  with  the  modifica- 
tions. 

For  instance,  I  am  in  a  state  of  sorrow;  some  one 
blames  me;  this  is  a  modification,  Vritti^  and  I  identify 
myself  with  it,  and  the  result  is  misery. 

5.  There  are  five  classes  of  modifications,  painful  and 

not  painful. 

6.  (These   are)  right  knowledge,  indiscrimination, 

verbal  delusion,  sleep,  and  memory. 

7.  Direct  perception,  inference,  and  competent  evi- 

dence, are  proofs. 

When  two  of  our  perceptions  do  not  contradict  each 
other  we  call  it  proof.  I  hear  something,  and,  if  it 
contradicts  something  already  perceived,  I  begin  to 
fight  it  out,  and  do  not  believe  it.  There  are  also 
three  kinds  of  proof.  Direct  perception,  Pratyaksha^n,, 
whatever  we  see  and  feel,  is  proof,  if  there  has  been 
nothing  to  delude  the  senses.  I  see  the  world ;  that 
is  sufficient  proof  that  it  exists.  Secondly,  Anumdnay 
inference;  you  see  a  sign,  and  from  the  sign  you  come 
to  the  thing  signified.  Thirdly,  Aptavdkyam,  the 
direct  perception  of  the  Yogi^  of  those  who  have  seen 
the  truth.  We  are  all  of  us  struggling  towards  knowl- 
edge, but  you  and  I  have  to  struggle  hard,  and  come 
to  knowledge  through  a  long  tedious  process  of 
reasoning,  but  the  Yogi,  the  pure  one,  has  gone  beyond 
all  this.     Before  his  mind,  the  past,  the  present,  and 


no  RAJA   YOGA 

the  future,  are  alike  one  book  for  him  to  read;  he  does 
not  require  to  go  through  all  this  tedious  process,  and 
his  words  are  proofs,  because  he  sees  knowledge  in 
himself  ;  he  is  the  Omniscient  One.  These,  for 
instance,  are  the  authors  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures; 
therefore  the  Scriptures  are  proof,  and,  if  any  such 
persons  are  living  noW;  their  words  will  be  proof. 
Other  philosophers  go  into  long  discussions  about  this 
Apta^  and  they  say,  what  is  the  proof  that  this  is  truth? 
The  proof  is  because  they  see  it;  because  whatever  I 
see  is  proof,  and  whatever  you  see  is  proof,  if  it  does  not 
contradict  any  past  knowledge.  There  is  knowledge 
beyond  the  senses,  and  whenever  it  does  not  contradict 
reason  and  past  human  experience,  that  knowledge  is 
proof.  Any  madman  may  come  into  this  room  and  say 
he  sees  angels  around  him ;  that  would  not  be  proof.  In 
the  first  place  it  must  be  true  knowledge,  and,  secondly, 
it  must  not  contradict  knowledge  of  the  past,  and, 
thirdly,  it  must  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  man.  I 
hear  it  said  that  the  character  of  the  man  is  not  of  so 
much  importance  as  what  he  may  say ;  we  must  first  hear 
what  he  says.  This  may  be  true  in  other  things;  a 
man  may  be  wicked,  and  yet  make  an  astronomical 
discovery,  but  in  religion  it  is  different,  because  no 
impure  man  will  ever  have  the  power  to  reach  the 
truths  of  religion.  Therefore,  we  have  first  of  all  to 
see  that  the  man  who  declares  himself  to  be  an  Apia 
is  a  perfectly  unselfish  and  holy  person;  secondly  that 
he  has  reached  beyond  the  senses,  and  thirdly  that 
what  he  says  does  not  contradict  the  past  knowledge 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  Ill 

of  humanity.  Any  new  discovery  of  truth  does  not 
contradict  the  past  truth,  but  fits  into  it.  And, 
fourthly,  that  truth  must  have  a  possibility  of  verifica- 
tion. If  a  man  says  "  I  have  seen  a  vision,"  and  tells 
me  that  I  have  no  right  to  see  it,  I  believe  him  not. 
Every  one  must  have  the  power  to  see  it  for  himself. 
No  one  who  sells  his  knowledge  is  an  Apia,  All  these 
conditions  must  be  fulfilled;  you  must  first  see  that  the 
man  is  pure,  and  that  he  has  no  selfish  motive;  that  he 
has  no  thirst  for  gain  or  fame.  Secondly,  he  must 
show  that  he  is  super-conscious.  Thirdly,  he  must 
give  us  something  that  we  cannot  get  from  our  senses, 
and  which  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  world.  And  we 
must  see  that  it  does  not  contradict  other  truths;  if  it 
contradict  other  scientific  truths  reject  it  at  once. 
Fourthly,  the  man  should  never  be  singular;  he  should 
only  represent  what  all  men  can  attain.  The  three 
sorts  of  proof,  are,  then,  direct  sense  perception, 
inference,  and  the  words  of  an  Apia.  I  cannot  trans- 
late this  word  into  English.  It  is  not  the  word  inspired, 
because  that  comes  from  outside,  while  this  comes  from 
himself.     The  literal  meaning  is  "attained." 

8.  Indiscrimination   is  false  knowledge  not  estab- 
lished in  real  nature. 

The  next  class  of  Vrittis  that  arise  is  mistaking  the 
one  thing  for  another,  as  a  piece  of  mother-of-pearl  is 
taken  for  a  piece  of  silver. 


112  RAJA   YOGA. 

9.  Verbal  delusion  follows  from  words  having  no 

(corresponding)  reality. 

There  is  another  class  of  Vrittis  called  Vikalpa. 
A  word  is  uttered,  and  we  do  not  wait  to  consider  its 
meaning;  we  jump  to  a  conclusion  immediately.  It  is 
the  sign  of  weakness  of  the  Chitta.  Now  you  can 
understand  the  theory  of  restraint.  The  weaker  the 
man  the  less  he  has  of  restraint.  Consider  yourselves 
always  in  that  way.  When  you  are  going  to  be  angry 
or  miserable,  reason  it  out,  how  it  is  that  some  news 
that  has  come  to  you  is  throwing  your  mind  into 
Vrittis. 

10.  Sleep  is  a  Vritti  which  embraces  the  feeling  of 

voidness. 

The  next  class  of  Vrittis  is  called  sleep  and  dream. 
When  we  awake  we  know  that  we  have  been  sleeping; 
we  can  only  have  memory  of  perception.  That  which 
we  do  not  perceive  we  never  can  have  any  memory  of. 
Every  reaction  is  a  wave  in  the  lake.  Now,  if,  during 
sleep,  the  mind  had  no  waves,  it  would  have  no  percep- 
tions, positive  or  negative,  and,  therefore,  we  would 
not  remember  them.  The  very  reason  of  our  remem- 
bering sleep  is  that  during  sleep  there  was  a  certain 
class  of  waves  in  the  mind.  Memory  is  another  class 
of  Vrittis^  which  is  called  Smriti. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  II3 

11.  Memory  is  when  the  (Vrittis  of)  perceived  sub- 

jects do  not  slip  away  (and  through  impressions 
come  back  to  consciousness). 

Memory  can  be  caused  by  the  previous  three.  For 
instance,  you  hear  a  word.  That  word  is  like  a  stone 
thrown  into  the  lake  of  the  Chitta  ;  it  causes  a  ripple, 
and  that  ripple  rouses  a  series  of  ripples;  this  is 
memory.  So  in  sleep.  When  the  peculiar  kind  of 
ripple  called  sleep  throws  the  Chitta  into  a  ripple  of 
memory  it  is  called  a  dream.  Dream  is  another  form 
of  the  ripple  which  in  the  waking  state  is  called 
memory. 

12.  Their   control  is  by  practice   and  non-attach- 

ment. 

The  mind,  to  have  this  non-attachment,  must  be 
clear,  good  and  rational.  Why  should  we  practise  ? 
Because  each  action  is  like  the  pulsations  quivering 
over  the  surface  of  the  lake.  The  vibration  dies  out, 
and  what  is  left  ?  The  Samskdras,  the  impressions. 
When  a  large  number  of  these  impressions  is  left  on 
the  mind  they  coalesce,  and  become  a  habit.  It  is 
said  **  habit  is  second  nature;  "  it  is  first  nature  also, 
and  the  whole  nature  of  man;  everything  that  we  are 
is  the  result  of  habit.  That  gives  us  consolation,  be- 
cause, if  it  is  only  habit,  we  can  make  and  unmake  it 
at  any  time.  This  Samskdra  is  left  by  these  vibrations 
passing  out  of  our  mind,  each  one  of  them  leaving  its 
result  Our  character  is  the  sum-total  of  these  marks, 
and   according  as  some  particular  wave  prevails  one 


I  "4  rAja  yoga. 

takes  that  tone.  If  good  prevail  one  becomes  good, 
if  wickedness  one  becomes  wicked,  if  joyfulness  one 
becomes  happy.  The  only  remedy  for  bad  habits  is 
counter  habits;  all  the  bad  habits  that  have  left  their 
impressions  are  to  be  controlled  by  good  habits.  Go 
on  doing  good,  thinking  holy  thoughts  continuously; 
that  is  the  only  way  to  suppress  base  impressions. 
Never  say  any  man  is  hopeless,  because  he  only  rep- 
resents a  character,  a  bundle  of  habits,  and  these 
can  be  checked  by  new  and  better  ones.  Character  is 
repeated  habits,  and  repeated  habits  alone  can  reform 
character. 

13.  Continuous  stmggle  to  keep  them  (the  Vrittii) 

perfectly  restrained  is  practice. 

What  is  this  practice  ?  The  attempt  to  restrain  the 
mind  in  the  Chitta  form,  to  prevent  its  going  out  into 
waves. 

14.  Its  ground  becomes  firm  by  long,  constant  efforts 

with  great  love  (for  the  end  to  be  attained). 

Restraint  does  not  come  in  one  day,  but  by  long 
continued  practice. 

15.  That  effect  which  comes  to  those  who  have  given 

up  their  thirst  after  objects  either  seen  or 
heard,  and  which  wills  to  control  the  objects, 
is  non-attachment. 

Two  motives  of  our  actions  are  (i)  What  we  see  our- 
■elves;    (2)   The   experience   of   others.      These   two 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  II5 

rorces  are  throwing  the  mind,  the  lake,  into  various 
waves.  Renunciation  is  the  power  of  battling  against 
these,  and  holding  the  mind  in  check.  Renunciation 
of  these  two  motives  is  what  we  want.  I  am  passing 
through  a  street,  and  a  man  comes  and  takes  my  watch. 
That  is  my  own  experience.  I  see  it  myself,  and  it 
immediately  throws  my  Chitta  into  a  wave,  taking  the 
form  of  anger.  Allow  not  that  to  come.  If  you  can- 
not prevent  that,  you  are  nothing;  if  you  can,  you 
have  Vairdgya?fi.  Similarly,  the  experience  of  the 
worldly-minded  teaches  us  that  sense  enjoyments  are 
the  highest  ideal.  These  are  tremendous  temptations. 
To  deny  them,  and  not  allow  the  mind  to  come  into  a 
wave  form  with  regard  to  them,  is  renunciation;  to 
control  the  twofold  motive  powers  arising  from  my 
own  experience,  and  from  the  experience  of  others, 
and  thus  prevent  the  Chitta  from  being  governed  by 
them,  is  Vairdgyam.  These  should  be  controlled  by 
me,  and  not  I  by  them.  This  sort  of  mental  strength 
is  called  renunciation.  This  Vairdgyam  is  the  only 
way  to  freedom. 

16.  That  extreme  non-attachment,  giving  up  even 
the  qualities,  shows  (the  real  nature  of)  the 
Purusa. 

It  is  the  highest  manifestation  of  power  when  it 
takes  away  even  our  attraction  towards  the  qualities. 
We  have  first  to  understand  what  the  Puruia,  the  Self, 
is,  and  what  are  the  qualities.  According  to  Yoga 
philosophy  the  whole  of  nature  consists  of  three  quali- 


Il6  RAJA   YOGA. 

ties;  one  is  called  Tafnas,  another  Rajas^  and  the  third 
Sattva.  These  three  qualities  manifest  themselves  in 
the  physical  world  as  attraction,  repulsion,  and  con- 
trol. Everything  that  is  in  nature,  all  these  manifes- 
tations, are  combinations  and  recombinations  of  these 
three  forces.  This  nature  has  been  divided  into  vari- 
ous categories  by  the  Sdnkhyas  ;  the  Self  of  man  is  be- 
yond all  these,  beyond  nature,  is  effulgent  by  Its  very 
nature.  It  is  pure  and  perfect.  Whatever  of  intelli 
gence  we  see  in  nature  is  but  the  reflection  from  this 
Self  upon  nature.  Nature  itself  is  insentient.  You 
must  remember  that  the  word  nature  also  includes  the 
mind;  mind  is  in  nature;  thought  is  in  nature;  from 
thought,  down  to  the  grossest  form  of  matter,  every- 
thing is  in  nature,  the  manifestation  of  nature.  This 
nature  has  covered  the  Self  of  man,  and  when  nature 
takes  away  the  covering  the  Self  becomes  unveiled, 
and  appears  in  Its  ov/n  glory.  This  non-attachment, 
as  it  is  described  in  Aphorism  15  (as  being  control  of 
nature)  is  the  greatest  help  towards  manifesting  the 
Self.  The  next  aphorism  defines  Saiuddhi^  perfect 
concentration,  which  is  the  goal  of  the  Yogi, 

17.  The  concentration  called  right  knowledge  is 
that  which  is  followed  by  reasoning,  discrim- 
ination, bliss,  unqualified  ego. 

This  Samddhi  is  divided  into  two  varieties.  One  is 
called  the  Samprajndfa^  and  the  other  the  Asamprajjidta. 
The  Samprajndta  is  of  four  varieties.  In  this  Samddhi 
Dome  all  the  powers  of  controlling  nature.     The  first 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  II7 

variety  is  called  the  Savitarka^  wh£n  the  mind  medi- 
tates upon  an  object  again  and  again,  by  isolating  it 
from  other  objects.  There  are  two  sorts  of  objects 
for  meditation,  the  categories  of  nature,  and  the 
Panda.  Again,  the  categories  are  of  two  varieties; 
the  twenty-four  categories  are  insentient,  and  the  one 
sentient  is  the  Punda.  When  the  mind  thinks  of  the 
elements  of  nature  by  thinking  of  their  beginning  and 
their  end,  this  is  one  sort  of  Savitarka.  The  words 
require  explanation.  This  part  of  Yoga  is  based 
entirely  on  Sdnkhya  Philosophy,  about  which  I  have 
already  told  you.  As  you  will  remember,  egoism  and 
will,  and  mind,  have  a  common  basis,  and  that  com- 
mon basis  is  called  the  Chitta,  the  mind-stuff,  out  of 
which  they  are  all  manufactured.  This  mind-stuff 
takes  in  the  forces  of  nature,  and  projects  them  as 
thought.  There  must  be  something,  again,  where  both 
force  and  matter  are  one.  This  is  called  Avyaktam^ 
the  unmanifested  state  of  nature,  before  creation,  and 
to  which,  after  the  end  of  a  cycle,  the  whole  of  nature 
returns,  to  again  come  out  after  another  period.  Be- 
yond that  is  the  Punda^  the  essence  of  intelligence. 
There  is  no  liberation  in  getting  powers.  It  is  a 
worldly  search  after  enjoyments,  and  there  is  no  enjoy- 
ment in  this  life;  all  search  for  enjoyment  is  vain;  this 
is  the  old,  old  lesson  which  man  finds  it  so  hard  to 
learn.  When  he  does  learn  it,  he  gets  out  of  the  uni- 
verse and  becomes  free.  The  possession  of  what  are 
called  occult  powers  is  only  intensifying  the  world, 
and  in  the  end,  intensifying  suffering.     Though,  as  a 


Il8  RAJA   YOGA. 

scientist,  Fatanjali  is  bound  to  point  out  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  science,  he  never  misses  an  opportunity 
to  warn  us  against  these  powers.  Knowledge  is  power, 
and  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  know  a  thing  we  get  power 
over  it;  so  also,  when  the  mind  begins  to  meditate  on 
the  different  elements  it  gains  power  over  them.  That 
sort  of  meditation  where  the  external  gross  elements 
are  the  objects  is  called  Savitarka.  Tarka  means  ques- 
tion, Savitarka  with-question.  Questioning  the  ele- 
ments, as  it  were,  that  they  may  give  up  their  truths 
and  their  powers  to  the  man  who  meditates  upon 
them.  Again,  in  the  very  same  meditation,  when  one 
struggles  to  take  the  elements  out  of  time  and  space, 
and  think  of  them  as  they  are,  it  is  called  Nirvitarka^ 
without-question.  When  the  meditation  goes  a  step 
higher,  and  takes  the  Tanmdtras  as  its  object,  and 
thinks  of  them  as  in  time  and  space,  it  is  called  Savi- 
chdra^  with-discrimination,  and  when  the  same  medita- 
tion gets  beyond  time  and  space,  and  thinks  of  the 
fine  elements  as  they  are,  it  is  called  Nirvichdra^  with- 
out-discrimination.  The  next  step  is  when  the  ele- 
ments are  given  up,  either  as  gross  or  as  fine,  and  the 
object  of  meditation  is  the  interior  organ,  the  thinking 
organ,  and  when  the  thinking  organ  is  thought  of  as 
bereft  of  the  qualities  of  activity,  and  of  dulness,  it  is 
then  called  Sdnanda?n^  the  blissful  Sa?7iddhi.  In  that 
Samdd/iiy  when  we  are  thinking  of  the  mind  as  the 
object  of  meditation,  before  we  have  reached  the  state 
which  takes  us  beyond  the  mind  even,  when  it  has 
become  very  ripe  and  concentrated,  when  all  ideas  of 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  II9 

the  gross  materials,  or  fine  materials,  have  been  given 
up,  and  the  only  object  is  the  mind  as  it  is,  when  the 
Sattva  state  only  of  the  Ego  remains,  but  differentiated 
from  all  other  objects,  this  is  called  Asmitd  Samddhi^ 
and  the  man  who  has  attained  to  this  has  attained  to 
what  is  called  in  the  Vedas  "  bereft  of  body."  He  can 
think  of  himself  as  without  his  gross  body;  but  he  will 
have  to  think  of  himself  as  with  a  fine  body.  Those 
that  in  this  state  get  merged  in  nature  without  attain- 
ing the  goal  are  called  Prakritilayas^  but  those  who  do 
not  even  stop  at  any  enjoyments,  reach  the  goal,  which 
is  freedom. 

18.  There  is  another  Sam&dhi  which  is  attained  by 
the  constant  practice  of  cessation  of  all  mental 
activity,  in  which  the  Chitta  retains  only  the 
nnmanifested  impressions. 

This  is  the  perfect  super-conscious  Asamprajndta 
Samddhi^  the  state  which  gives  us  freedom.  The  first 
state  does  not  give  us  freedom,  does  not  liberate  the 
soul.  A  man  may  attain  to  all  powers,  and  yet  fall 
again.  There  is  no  safeguard  until  the  soul  goes  be- 
yond nature,  and  beyond  conscious  concentration.  It 
is  very  difficult  to  attain,  although  its  method  seems 
very  easy.  Its  method  is  to  hold  the  mind  as  the 
object,  and  whenever  thought  comes,  to  strike  it 
down,  allowing  no  thought  to  come  into  the  mind,  thus 
making  it  an  entire  vacuum.  When  we  can  really  do 
this,  in  that  moment  we  shall  attain  liberation.  When 
persons  without  training  and  preparation  try  to  make 


I20  RAJA  YOGA. 

their  minds  vacant  they  are  likely  to  succeed  only  in 
covering  themselves  with  Tainas^  material  of  ignor- 
ance,  which  makes  the  mind  dull  and  stupid,  and  leads 
them  to  think  that  they  are  making  a  vacuum  of  the 
mind.  To  be  able  to  really  do  that  is  a  manifestation 
of  the  greatest  strength,  of  the  highest  control.  When 
this  state,  Asamprajndta^  super-consciousness,  is 
reached,  the  Sa7nddhi  becomes  seedless.  What  is 
meant  by  that  ?  In  that  sort  of  concentration  when 
there  is  consciousness,  where  the  mind  has  succeeded 
only  in  quelling  the  waves  in  the  Chitta  and  holding 
them  down,  they  are  still  there  in  the  form  of  tenden- 
cies, and  these  tendencies  (or  seeds)  will  become  waves 
again,  when  the  time  comes.  But  when  you  have 
destroyed  all  these  tendencies,  almost  destroyed  the 
mind,  then  it  has  become  seedless,  there  are  no  more 
seeds  in  the  mind  out  of  which  to  manufacture  again 
and  again  this  plant  of  life,  this  ceaseless  round  of 
birth  and  death.  You  may  ask,  what  state  would  that 
be,  in  which  we  should  have  no  knowledge  ?  What  we 
call  knowledge  is  a  lower  state  than  the  one  beyond 
knowledge.  You  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  the 
extremes  look  very  much  the  same.  The  low  vibra- 
tion of  light  is  darkness,  and  the  very  high  vibration 
of  light  is  darkness  also,  but  one  is  real  darkness,  and 
the  other  is  really  intense  light;  yet  their  appearance 
is  the  same.  So,  ignorance  is  the  lowest  state,  knowl- 
edge is  the  middle  state,  and  beyond  knowledge  is  a 
still  higher  state.  Knowledge  itself  is  a  manufactured 
something,   a  combination;    it  is    not  reality.     What 


V'OGA  APHORISMS.  121 

will  be  the  result  of  constant  practice  of  this  higher 
concentration  ?  All  old  tendencies  of  restlessness,  and 
dulness,  will  be  destroyed,  as  well  as  the  tendencies  of 
goodness  too.  It  is  just  the  same  as  with  the  metals 
that  are  used  with  gold  to  take  off  the  dirt  and  alloy. 
When  the  ore  is  smelted  down,  the  dross  is  burnt  along 
with  the  alloy.  So  this  constant  controlling  power  will 
stop  the  previous  bad  tendencies,  and,  eventually,  the 
good  ones  also.  Those  good  and  evil  tendencies  will 
suppress  each  other,  and  there  will  remain  the  Soul,  in 
all  its  glorious  splendour,  untrammelled  by  either  good 
or  bad,  and  that  Soul  is  omnipresent,  omnipotent,  and 
omniscient.  By  giving  up  all  powers  it  has  become 
omnipotent,  by  giving  up  all  life  it  is  beyond  mortal- 
ity; it  has  become  life  itself.  Then  the  Soul  will  know 
It  neither  had  birth  nor  death,  neither  want  of  heaven 
nor  of  earth.  It  will  know  that  It  neither  came  nor 
went;  it  was  nature  which  was  moving,  and  that  move- 
ment was  reflected  upon  the  Soul.  The  form  of  the 
light  is  moving,  it  is  reflected  and  cast  by  the  camera 
upon  the  wall,  and  the  wall  foolishly  thinks  it  is  mov- 
ing. So  with  all  of  us;  it  is  the  Chitta  constantly  mov- 
ing, manipulating  itself  into  various  forms,  and  we 
think  that  we  are  these  various  forms.  All  these  delu- 
sions will  vanish.  When  that  free  Soul  will  com- 
mand—  not  pray  or  beg,  but  command  —  then  what- 
ever It  desires  will  be  immediately  fulfilled;  whatever 
It  wants  It  will  be  able  to  do.  According  to  the 
Sdnkhya  Philosophy   there  is  no   God.     It  says    that 


122  RAJA  YOGA. 

there  cannot  be  any  God  of  this  universe,  because  if 
there  were  He  must  be  a  Soul,  and  a  Soul  must  be  one 
of  two  things,  either  bound  or  free.  How  can  the  soul 
that  is  bound  by  nature,  or  controlled  by  nature, 
create  ?  It  is  itself  a  slave.  On  the  other  hand,  what 
business  has  the  soul  that  is  free  to  create  and  manipu- 
late all  these  things  ?  It  has  no  desires,  so  cannot 
have  any  need  to  create.  Secondly,  it  says  the  theory 
of  God  is  an  unnecessary  one;  nature  explains  all. 
What  is  the  use  of  any  God  ?  But  Kapila  teaches  that 
there  are  many  souls,  who,  though  nearly  attaining 
perfection,  fall  short  because  they  cannot  perfectly 
renounce  all  powers.  Their  minds  for  a  time  merge 
in  nature,  to  re-emerge  as  its  masters.  Such  gods 
there  are.  We  shall  all  become  such  gods,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  Sdnkhyas^  the  God  spoken  of  in  the  Vedas 
really  means  one  of  these  free  souls.  Beyond  them 
there  is  not  an  ^ernally  free  and  blessed  Creator  of 
the  universe.  On  the  other  hand  the  Yogis  say,  "  Not 
so,  there  is  a  God;  there  is  one  Soul  separate  from  all 
other  souls,  and  He  is  the  eternal  Master  of  all  crea- 
tion, the  Ever  Free,  the  Teacher  of  all  teachers." 
The  Yogis  admit  that  those  the  Sdnkhyas  call  the 
*' merged  in  nature**  also  exist.  They  are  Yogis  who 
have  fallen  short  of  perfection,  and  though,  for  a 
time  debarred  from  attaining  the  goal,  remain  as  rulers 
of  parts  of  the  universe. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I23 

19.  (This  SamadM,  when  not  followed  by  extreme 

non-attachment)  becomes  the  cause  of  the  re- 
manifestation  of  the  gods  and  of  those  that 
become  merged  in  nature. 

The  gods  in  the  Indian  systems  represent  certain 
high  offices  which  are  being  filled  successively  by 
various  souls.     But  none  of  them  is  perfect. 

20.  To  others  (this  Samadhi)  comes  through  faith, 

energy,  memory,  concentration,  and  discrimin- 
ation of  the  real. 

These  are  they  who  do  not  want  the  position  of 
gods,  or  even  that  of  rulers  of  cycles.  They  attain  to 
liberation. 

21.  Success  is  speedy  for  the  extremely  energetic. 

22.  They  again  differ  according  as  the  means  are 

mild,  medium  or  supreme. 

23.  Or  by  devotion  to  I  svara. 

24.  I  svara  (the  Supreme  Ruler)  is  a  special  Purusa, 

untouched  by  misery,  the  results  of  actions,  or 
desires. 

We  must  again  remember  that  this  Patanjali  Yoga 
Philosophy  is  based  upon  that  of  the  Sdnk/iyas^  only 
that  in  the  latter  there  is  no  place  for  God,  while  with 
the  Yogis  God  has  a  place.  The  Yogis,  however,  avoid 
many  ideas  about  God,  such  as  creating.  God  as  the 
Creator  of  the  Universe  is  not  meant  by  the  livara  of 
the   Yogis,  although,  according  to  the  Vedas,  livara  is 


124  RAJA  YOGA. 

the  Creator  of  the  universe.  Seeing  that  the  universe 
is  harmonious,  it  must  be  the  manifestation  of  one 
will.  The  Vogzs  and  Sdnkhyas  both  avoid  the  question 
of  creation.  The  Yogis  want  to  establish  a  God,  but 
carefully  avoid  this  question,  they  do  not  raise  it  at 
all.  Yet  you  will  find  that  they  arrive  at  God  in  a 
peculiar  fashion  of  their  own.     They  say: 

25.  In  Him  becomes  infinite  that  all-knowingness 

which,  in  others  is  (only)  a  germ. 

The  mind  must  always  travel  between  two  extremes. 
You  can  think  of  limited  space,  but  the  very  idea  of 
that  gives  you  also  unlimited  space.  Close  your  eyes 
and  think  of  a  little  space,  and  at  the  same  time  that 
you  perceive  the  little  circle,  you  have  a  circle  round  it 
of  unlimited  dimensions.  It  is  the  same  with  time. 
Try  to  think  of  a  second,  you  will  have,  with  the  same 
act  of  perception,  to  think  of  time  which  is  unlimited. 
So  with  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  only  a  germ  in 
man,  but  you  will  have  to  think  of  infinite  knov.'ledge 
around  it,  so  that  the  very  nature  of  your  constitution 
shows  us  that  there  is  unlimited  knowledge,  and  the 
Yogis  call  that  unlimited  knowledge  God. 

26.  He  is  the  Teacher  of  even  the  ancient  teachers, 

being  not  limited  by  time. 

It  is  true  that  all  knowledge  is  within  ourselves,  but 
this  has  to  be  called  forth  by  another  knowledge. 
Although  the  capacity  to  know  is  inside  us,  it  must  be 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  12$ 

called  out,  and  that  calling  out  of  knowledge  can  only 
be  got,  a  Vogt  maintains,  through  another  knowledge. 
Dead,  insentient  matter,  never  calls  out  knowledge,  it 
is  the  action  of  knowledge  that  brings  our  knowledge. 
Knowing  beings  must  be  with  us  to  call  forth  what  is 
in  us,  so  these  teachers  were  always  necessary.  The 
world  was  never  without  them,  and  no  knowledge  can 
come  without  them.  God  is  the  Teacher  of  all  teach- 
ers, because  these  teachers,  however  great  they  may 
have  been  —  gods  or  angels  —  were  all  bound  and  lim- 
ited by  time,  and  God  is  not  limited  by  time.  These 
are  the  two  peculiar  deductions  of  the  Yogis.  The  first 
is  that  in  thinking  of  the  limited,  the  mind  must  think 
of  the  unlimited,  and  that  if  one  part  of  that  perception 
is  true  the  other  must  be,  for  the  reason  that  their 
value  as  perceptions  of  the  mind  is  equal.  The  very 
fact  that  man  has  a  little  knowledge,  shows  that  God 
has  unlimited  knowledge.  If  I  am  to  take  one,  why 
not  the  other  ?  Reason  forces  me  to  take  both  or 
reject  both.  If  I  believe  that  there  is  a  man  with  a 
little  knowledge,  I  must  also  admit  that  there  is  some- 
one behind  him  with  unlimited  knowledge.  The 
second  deduction  is  that  no  knowledge  can  come  with- 
out a  teacher.  It  is  true  as  the  modern  philosophers 
say,  that  there  is  something  in  man  which  evolves  out 
of  him;  all  knowledge  is  in  man,  but  certain  environ- 
ments are  necessary  to  call  it  out.  We  cannot  find  any 
knowledge  without  teachers,  if  there  are  men  teachers, 
god  teachers,  or  angel  teachers,  they  are  all  limited; 
who  was  the  teacher  before  them  ?     We  are  forced  to 


126  rAja  yoga. 

admit,  as  a  last  conclusion,  One  Teacher,  Who  is  not 
limited  by  time,  and  that  One  Teacher  of  infinite 
knowledge^  without  beginning  or  end,  is  called  God. 

27.  His  manifesting  word  is  Om. 

Every  idea  that  you  have  in  the  mind  has  a  counter- 
part in  a  word;  the  word  and  the  thought  are  insepar- 
able. The  external  part  of  the  thought  is  what  we 
call  word,  and  the  internal  part  is  what  we  call  thought. 
No  man  can,  by  analysis,  separate  thought  from  word. 
The  idea  that  language  was  created  by  men  —  certain 
men  sitting  together  and  deciding  upon  words,  has 
been  proved  to  be  wrong.  So  long  as  things  have 
existed  there  have  been  words  and  language.  What  is 
the  connection  between  an  idea  and  a  word  ?  Although 
we  see  that  there  must  always  be  a  word  with  a  thought, 
it  is  not  necessary  that  the  same  thought  requires  the 
same  word.  The  thought  may  be  the  same  in  twenty 
different  countries,  yet  the  language  is  different.  We 
must  have  a  word  to  express  each  thought,  but  these 
words  need  not  necessarily  have  the  same  sound. 
Sounds  will  vary  in  different  nations.  Our  commenta- 
tor says  '*  Although  the  relation  between  thought  and 
word  is  perfectly  natural,  yet  it  does  not  mean  a  rigid 
connection  between  one  sound  and  one  idea."  These 
sounds  vary,  yet  the  relation  between  the  sounds  and 
the  thoughts  is  a  natural  one.  The  connection  between 
thoughts  and  sounds  is  good  only  if  there  be  a  real 
connection  between  the  thing  signified  and  the  sym* 
bol,  and  until  then  that  symbol  will  never  come  into 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  12/ 

general  use.  Symbol  is  the  manifestor  of  the  thing 
signified,  and  if  the  thing  signified  has  already  exist- 
ence, and  if,  by  experience,  we  know  that  the  symbol 
has  expressed  that  thing  many  times,  then  we  are  sure 
that  there  is  the  real  relation  between  them.  Even  if 
the  things  are  not  present,  there  will  be  thousands  who 
will  know  them  by  their  symbols.  There  must  be  a 
natural  connection  between  the  symbol  and  the  thing 
signified;  then,  when  that  symbol  is  pronounced,  it 
recalls  the  thing  signified.  The  commentator  says  the 
manifesting  word  of  God  is  Om.  Why  does  he  empha- 
size this  ?  There  are  hundreds  of  words  for  God. 
One  thought  is  connected  with  a  thousand  words;  the 
idea,  God,  is  connected  with  hundreds  of  words,  and 
each  one  stands  as  a  symbol  for  God.  Very  good.  But 
there  must  be  a  generalisation  among  all  these  words, 
some  substratum,  some  common  ground  of  all  these 
symbols,  and  that  symbol  which  is  the  common  sym- 
bol will  be  the  best,  and  will  really  be  the  symbol  of 
all.  In  making  a  sound  we  use  the  larynx,  and  the 
palate  as  a  sounding  board.  Is  there  any  material 
sound  of  which  all  other  sounds  must  be  manifesta- 
tions, one  which  is  the  most  natural  sound  ?  Om 
(Aum)  is  such  a  sound,  the  basis  of  all  sounds.  The 
first  letter.  A,  is  the  root  sound,  the  key,  pronounced 
without  touching  any  part  of  the  tongue  or  palate; 
M  represents  the  last  sound  in  the  series,  being  pro- 
duced by  the  closed  lips,  and  the  U  rolls  from  the 
very  root  to  the  end  of  the  sounding  board  of  the 
mouth.     Thus,  Om  represents  the  whole  phenomena 


128  rAja  yoga. 

of  sound  producing.  As  such,  it  must  be  the  natural 
symbol,  the  matrix  of  all  the  various  sounds.  It 
denotes  the  whole  range  and  possibility  of  all  the 
words  that  can  be  made.  Apart  from  these  specula- 
tions we  see  that  around  this  word  Om  are  centred  all 
the  different  religious  ideas  in  India;  all  the  various 
religious  ideas  of  the  Vedas  have  gathered  themselves 
round  this  word  Om.  What  has  that  to  do  with 
America  and  England,  or  any  other  country  ?  Simply 
that  the  word  has  been  retained  at  every  stage  of 
religious  growth  in  India,  and  it  has  been  manipulated 
to  mean  all  the  various  ideas  about  God.  Monists, 
Dualists,  Mono-Dualists,  Separatists,  and  even  Athe- 
ists, took  up  this  Om.  Om  has  become  the  one  symbol 
for  the  religious  aspiration  of  the  vast  majority  of 
human  beings.  Take,  for  instance,  the  English  word 
God.  It  covers  only  a  limited  function,  and,  if  you  go 
beyond  it,  you  have  to  add  adjectives,  to  make  it  Per- 
sonal, or  Impersonal,  or  Absolute  God.  So  with  the 
words  for  God  in  every  other  language;  their  significa- 
tion is  very  small.  This  word  Om^  however,  has  around 
it  all  the  various  significances.  As  such  it  should  be 
accepted  by  everyone. 

28.  The  repetition  of  this  (Om)  and  meditating  on 
its  meaning  (is  the  way). 

Why  should  there  be  repetition  ?  We  have  not  for- 
gotten that  theory  of  Sa?nskdras,  that  the  sum-total  of 
impressions  lives  inthe  mind.     Impressions  live  in  the 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  129 

mind,  the  sum-total  of  impressions,  and  they  become 
more  and  more  latent,  but  remain  there,  and  as  soon 
as  they  get  the  right  stimulus  they  come  out.  Molec- 
ular vibration  will  never  cease.  When  this  universe 
is  destroyed  all  the  massive  vibrations  disappear,  the 
sun,  moon,  stars,  and  earth,  will  melt  down,  but  the 
vibrations  must  remain  in  the  atoms.  Each  atom  will 
perform  the  same  function  as  the  big  worlds  do.  So 
the  vibrations  of  this  Chitta  will  subside,  but  will  go  on 
like  molecular  vibrations,  and  when  they  get  the 
impulse  will  come  out  again.  We  can  now  understand 
what  is  meant  by  repetition.  It  is  the  greatest  stimu- 
lus that  can  be  given  to  the  spiritual  Samskdras. 
"  One  moment  of  company  with  the  Holy  makes  a  ship 
to  cross  this  ocean  of  life."  Such  is  the  power  of 
association.  So  this  repetition  of  Om,  and  thinking  of 
its  meaning,  is  keeping  good  company  in  your  own 
mind.  Study,  and  then  meditate  and  meditate,  when 
you  have  studied.  Thus  light  will  come  to  you,  the 
Self  will  become  manifest. 

But  one  must  think  of  this  Om^  and  of  its  meaning 
too.  Avoid  evil  company,  because  the  scars  of  old 
wounds  are  in  you,  and  this  evil  company  is  just  the 
heat  that  is  necessary  to  call  them  out.  In  the  same 
way  we  are  told  that  good  company  will  call  out  the 
good  impressions  that  are  in  us,  but  which  have  be- 
come latent.  There  is  nothing  holier  in  this  world 
than  to  keep  good  company,  because  the  good  impres- ' 
sions  will  have  this  same  tendency  to  come  to  the 
surface. 

9 


130  RAJA   YOGA. 

29.  From  that  is  gained  (the  knowledge  of)  Intro* 

spection,  and  the  destruction  of  obstacles. 

The  first  manifestation  of  this  repetition  and  think- 
ing of  Om  will  be  that  the  introspective  power  will  be 
manifested  more  and  more,  and  all  the  mental  and 
physical  obstacles  will  begin  to  vanish.  What  are  the 
obstacles  to  the  Yogil 

30.  Disease,  mental  laziness,  doubt,  calmness,  cessa- 

tion, false  perception,  non-attaining  concentra- 
tion, and  falling  away  from  the  state  when 
obtained,  are  the  obstructing  distractions. 

Disease.  This  body  is  the  boat  which  will  carry  us 
to  the  other  shore  of  the  ocean  of  life.  It  must  be 
taken  care  of.  Unhealthy  persons  cannot  be  Yogts. 
Mental  laziness  makes  us  lose  all  lively  interest  in  the 
subject,  without  which  there  will  neither  be  the  will 
nor  the  energy  to  practise.  Doubts  will  arise  in  the 
mind  about  the  truth  of  the  science,  however  strong 
one's  intellectual  conviction  may  be,  until  certain 
peculiar  psychic  experiences  come,  as  hearing,  or  see- 
ing, at  a  distance,  etc.  These  glimpses  strengthen  the 
mind  and  make  the  student  persevere.  Falling  away 
when  attained.  Some  days  or  weeks  when  you  are 
practising  the  mind  will  be  calm  and  easily  concen- 
trated, and  you  will  find  yourself  progressing  fast.  All 
of  a  sudden  the  progress  will  stop  one  day,  and  you 
will  find  yourself,  as  it  were,  stranded.  Persevere. 
All  progress  proceeds  by  such  rise  and  fall. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I3I 

31.  Grief,    mental    distress,   tremor    of   the    body, 

irregular  breathing,  accompany  non-retention 
of  concentration. 

Concentration  will  bring  perfect  repose  to  mind  and 
body  every  time  it  is  practised.  When  the  practice 
has  been  misdirected,  or  not  enough  controlled,  these 
disturbances  come.  Repetition  of  Om  and  self-sur- 
render to  the  Lord  will  strengthen  the  mind,  and  bring 
fresh  energy.  The  nervous  shakings  will  come  to 
almost  everyone.  Do  not  mind  them  at  all,  but  keep 
on  practising.  Practice  will  cure  them,  and  make  the 
seat  firm. 

32.  To   remedy  this  the   practice    of   one    subject 

(should  be  made). 

Making  the  mind  take  the  form  of  one  object  for 
some  time  will  destroy  these  obstacles.  This  is  gen- 
eral advice.  In  the  following  aphorisms  it  will  be 
expanded  and  particularised.  As  one  practice  cannot 
suit  everyone,  various  methods  will  be  advanced,  and 
everyone  by  actual  experience  will  find  out  that  which 
helps  him  most. 

33.  Friendship,  mercy,  gladness,  indiflftrence,  being 

thought  of  in  regard  to  subjects,  happy,  un- 
happy, good  and  evil  respectively,  pacify  the 
Chitta. 

We  must  have  these  four  sorts  of  ideas.  We  must 
have  friendship  for  all;  we  must  be  merciful  towards 


132  RAJA   YOGA. 

those  that  are  in  misery;  when  people  are  happy  we 
ought  to  be  happy,  and  to  the  wicked  we  must  be 
indifferent.  So  with  all  subjects  that  come  before  us. 
If  the  subject  is  a  good  one,  we  shall  feel  friendly 
towards  it;  if  the  subject  of  thought  is  one  that  is 
miserable  we  must  be  merciful  towards  the  subject.  If 
it  is  good  we  must  be  glad,  if  it  is  evil  we  must  be  in- 
different. These  attitudes  of  the  mind  towards  the 
different  subjects  that  come  before  it  will  make  the 
mind  peaceful.  Most  of  our  difficulties  in  our  daily 
lives  come  from  being  unable  to  hold  our  minds  in  this 
way.  For  instance,  if  a  man  does  evil  to  us,  instantly 
we  want  to  react  evil,  and  every  reaction  of  evil  shows 
that  we  are  not  able  to  hold  the  Chitta  down;  it  comes 
out  in  waves  towards  the  object,  and  we  lose  our 
power.  Every  reaction  in  the  form  of  hatred  or  evil  is 
so  much  loss  to  the  mind,  and  every  evil  thought  or 
deed  of  hatred,  or  any  thought  of  reaction,  if  it  is  con- 
trolled, will  be  laid  in  our  favour.  It  is  not  that  we 
lose  by  thus  restraining  ourselves;  we  are  gaining 
infinitely  more  than  we  suspect.  Each  time  we  sup- 
press hatred,  or  a  feeling  of  anger,  it  is  so  much  good 
energy  stored  up  in  our  favour;  that  piece  of  energy 
will  be  converted  into  the  higher  powers. 

34.  By  throwing  out  and  restraining  the  Breath. 

The  word  used  is  Prdna.  Prdna  is  not  exactly 
breath.  It  is  the  name  for  the  energy  that  is  in  the 
universe.  Whatever  you  see  in  the  universe,  whatever 
moves  or  works,  or  has  life,  is  a  manifestation  of  this 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I33 

Prdna.  The  sum-total  of  the  energy  displayed  in  the 
universe  is  called  Prdna.  This  Prdna,  before  a  cycle 
begins,  remains  in  an  almost  motionless  state,  and 
when  the  cycle  begins  this  Prdna  begins  to  manifest 
itself.  It  is  this  Prdna  that  is  manifested  as  motion, 
as  the  nervous  motion  in  human  beings  or  animals, 
and  the  same  Prdna  is  manifesting  as  thought,  and  so 
on.  The  whole  universe  is  a  combination  of  Prdna  and 
Akdsa\  so  is  the  human  body.  Out  of  Akdia  you  get 
the  different  materials  that  you  feel,  and  see,  and  out  of 
Prdna  all  the  various  forces.  Now  this  throwing  out 
and  restraining  the  Prdna  is  what  is  called  Prdndydma. 
Pafanjalij  the  father  of  the  Yoga  Philosophy,  does  not 
give  very  many  particular  directions  dihont  Prd?idydmay 
but  later  on  other  Yogis  found  out  various  things  about 
this  Prdndyd?na,  and  made  of  it  a  great  science.  With 
Pantanjali  it  is  one  of  the  many  ways,  but  he  does  not 
lay  much  stress  on  it.  He  means  that  you  simply 
throw  the  air  out,  and  drawn  it  in,  and  hold  it  for 
some  time,  that  is  all,  and  by  that,  the  mind  will  be 
come  a  little  calmer.  But,  later  on,  you  will  find  that 
out  of  this  is  evolved  a  particular  science  called  Prdnd- 
ydma. We  will  hear  a  little  of  what  these  later  Yogis 
have  to  say.  Some  of  this  I  have  told  you  before,  but 
a  little  repetition  will  serve  to  fix  it  in  your  minds. 
First,  you  must  remember  that  this  Prdna  is  not 
the  breath.  But  that  which  causes  the  motion  of  the 
breath,  that  which  is  the  vitality  of  the  breath  is 
the  Prdna.  Again,  the  word  Prdna  is  used  of  all  the 
senses;  they  are  all  called  Prdnas,  the  mind  is  called 


134  RAJA  yoga. 

Prdna  j  and  so  we  see  that  Prdna  is  the  name  of  a  cer- 
tain force.  And  yet  we  cannot  call  it  force,  because 
force  is  only  the  manifestation  of  it.  It  is  that  which 
manifests  itself  as  force  and  everything  else  in  the  way 
of  motion.  The  Chitta^  the  mind-stuff,  is  the  engine 
which  draws  in  the  Prdna  from  the  surroundings,  and 
manufactures  out  of  this  Prdna  these  various  vital 
forces.  First  of  all  the  forces  that  keep  the  body  in 
preservation,  and  lastly  thought,  will,  and  all  other 
powers.  By  this  process  of  breathing  we  can  control 
all  the  various  motions  in  the  body,  and  the  various 
nerve  currents  that  are  running  through  the  body. 
First  we  begin  to  recognise  them,  and  then  we  slowly 
get  control  over  them.  Now  these  later  Yogis  con- 
sider that  there  are  three  main  currents  of  this  Prdna 
in  the  human  body.  One  they  call  Idd^  another  Pin- 
galdy  and  the  third  Suimnnd.  Pingald^  according  to 
them,  is  on  the  right  side  of  the  spinal  column,  and 
the  Ida  is  on  the  left  side,  and  in  the  middle  of  this 
spinal  column  is  the  Suhimnd^  a  vacant  channel.  Idd 
and  Pingald^  according  to  them,  are  the  currents  work- 
ing in  every  man,  and  through  these  currents,  we  are 
performing  all  the  functions  of  life.  Stdumnd  is  pres- 
ent in  all,  as  a  possibility;  but  it  works  only  in  the 
Yogi.  You  must  remember  that  the  Yogi  changes  his 
body;  as  you  go  on  practising  your  body  changes;  it 
is  not  the  same  body  that  you  had  before  the  practice. 
That  is  very  rational,  and  can  be  explained,  because 
every  new  thought  that  we  have  must  make,  as  it 
were,    a   new   channel    through    the   brain,    and    that 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I35 

explains  the  tremendous  conservatism  of  human 
nature.  Human  nature  likes  to  run  through  the  ruts 
that  are  already  there,  because  it  is  easy.  If  we  think, 
just  for  example's  sake,  that  the  mind  is  like  a  needle, 
and  the  brain  substance  a  soft  lump  before  it,  then 
each  thought  that  we  have  makes  a  street,  as  it  were, 
in  the  brain,  and  this  street  would  close  up,  but  that 
the  grey  matter  comes  and  makes  a  lining  to  keep  it 
separate.  If  there  were  no  grey  matter  there  would  be 
no  memory,  because  memory  means  going  over  these 
old  streets,  retracing  a  thought  as  it  were.  Now  per- 
haps you  have  remarked  that  when  I  talk  on  subjects 
in  which  I  take  a  few  ideas  that  are  familiar  to  every- 
one, and  combine,  and  recombine  them,  it  is  easy  to 
follow,  because  these  channels  are  present  in  every- 
one's brain,  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  recur  to  them. 
But  whenever  a  new  subject  comes  new  channels  have 
to  be  made,  so  it  is  not  understood  so  readily.  And 
that  is  why  the  brain  (it  is  the  brain,  and  not  the 
people  themselves)  refuses  unconsciously  to  be  acted 
upon  by  new  ideas.  It  resists.  The  Prdna  is  trying 
to  make  new  channels,  and  the  brain  will  not  allow  it. 
This  is  the  secret  of  conservatism.  The  less  channels 
there  have  been  in  the  brain,  and  the  less  the  needle 
of  the  Prdna  has  made  these  passages,  the  more  con- 
servative will  be  the  brain,  the  more  it  will  struggle 
against  new  thoughts.  The  more  thoughtful  the  man, 
the  more  complicated  will  be  the  streets  in  his  brain, 
and  the  more  easily  he  will  take  to  new  ideas,  and 
understand  them.     So  with  every  fresh  idea;  we  make 


I3<5  RAja  yoga. 

a  new  impression  in  the  brain,  cut  new  channels 
through  the  brain-stuff,  and  that  is  why  we  find  that 
in  the  practice  of  Yoga  (it  being  an  entirely  new  set  of 
thoughts  and  motives)  there  is  so  much  physical  resist- 
ance at  first.  That  is  why  we  find  that  the  part  of  re- 
ligion which  deals  with  the  world  side  of  nature  can  be 
so  widely  accepted,  while  the  other  part,  the  Philos- 
ophy, or  the  Psychology,  which  deals  with  the  inner 
nature  of  man,  is  so  frequently  neglected.  We  must 
remember  the  definition  of  this  world  of  ours;  it  is 
only  the  Infinite  Existence  projected  into  the  plane  of 
consciousness.  A  little  of  the  Infinite  is  projected 
into  consciousness,  and  that  we  call  our  world.  So 
there  is  an  Infinite  beyond,  and  religion  has  to  deal 
with  both,  with  the  little  lump  we  call  our  world,  and 
with  the  Infinite  beyond.  Any  religion  which  deals 
alone  with  either  one  of  these  two  will  be  defective. 
It  must  deal  with  both.  That  part  of  religion  which 
deals  with  this  part  of  the  Infinite  which  has  come  into 
this  plane  of  consciousness,  got  itself  caught,  as  it 
were,  in  the  plane  of  consciousness,  in  the  cage  of 
time,  space,  and  causation,  is  quite  familiar  to  us,  be- 
cause we  are  in  that  already,  and  ideas  about  this 
world  have  been  with  us  almost  from  time  immemorial. 
The  part  of  religion  which  deals  with  the  Infinite  be- 
yond comes  entirely  new  to  us,  and  getting  ideas 
about  it  produces  new  channels  in  the  brain,  disturbing 
the  whole  system,  and  that  is  why  you  find  in  the 
practice  of  Yoga  ordinary  people  are  at  first  turned  out 
of  their  grooves.     In   order  to  lessen   these  disturb- 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I37 

ances  as  much  as  possible  all  these  methods  are  devised 
by  Pata7ijali^  that  we  may  practise  any  one  of  them 
best  suited  to  us. 

36.  Those  forms  of  concentration  that  bring  extra- 
ordinary sense  perceptions  cause  perseverance 
of  the  mind. 

This  naturally  comes  with  Dhdrdna^  concentration; 
the  Yogis  say,  if  the  mind  becomes  concentrated  on  the 
tip  of  the  nose  one  begins  to  smell,  after  a  few  days, 
wonderful  perfumes.  If  it  becomes  concentrated  at 
the  root  of  the  tongue  one  begins  to  hear  sounds;  if 
on  the  tip  of  the  tongue  one  begins  to  taste  wonderful 
flavours;,  if  on  the  middle  of  the  tongue,  one  feels  as  if 
he  were  coming  in  contact  with  something.  If  one 
concentrates  his  mind  on  the  palate  he  begins  to  see 
peculiar  things.  If  a  man  whose  mind  is  disturbed 
wants  to  take  up  some  of  these  practices  of  Yoga^  yet 
doubts  the  truth  of  them,  he  will  have  his  doubts  set 
at  rest  when,  after  a  little  practice,  these  things  come 
to  him,  and  he  will  persevere. 

36.  Or  (by  the  meditation  on)  the  Effulgent  One 
which  is  beyond  all  sorrow. 

This  is  another  sort  of  concentration.  Think  of  the 
lotus  of  the  heart,  with  petals  downwards,  and  running 
through  it  the  Suiumnd\  take  in  the  breath,  and  while 
throwing  the  breath  out  imagine  that  the  lotus  is  turned 
with  the  petals  upwards,  and  inside  that  lotus  is  an 
effulgent  light.     Meditate  on  that. 


138  RAJA   YOGA. 

37.  Or  (by  meditation  on)  the  heart  that  has  given 

up  all  attachment  to  sense  objects. 

Take  some  holy  person,  some  great  person  whom 
you  revere,  some  saint  whom  you  know  to  be  perfectly 
non-attached,  and  think  of  his  heart.  That  heart  has 
become  non-attached,  and  meditate  on  that  heart;  it 
will  calm  the  mind.  If  you  cannot  do  that,  there  is 
the  next  way: 

38.  Or  by  meditating  on  the  knowledge  that  comes 
in  sleep. 

Sometimes  a  man  dreams  that  he  has  seen  angels 
coming  to  him  and  talking  to  him,  that  he  is  in  an 
ecstatic  condition,  that  he  has  heard  music  floating 
through  the  air.  He  is  in  a  blissful  condition  in  that 
dream,  and  when  he  awakes  it  makes  a  deep  impression 
on  him.  Think  of  that  dream  as  real,  and  meditate 
upon  it.  If  you  cannot  do  that,  meditate  on  any  holy 
thing  that  pleases  you. 

39.  Or  by  the  meditation  on  anything  that  appeals 

to  one  as  good. 

This  does  not  mean  any  wicked  subject,  but  anything 
good  that  you  like,  any  place  that  you  like  best,  any 
scenery  that  you  like  best,  any  idea  that  you  like  best, 
anything  that  will  concentrate  the  mind. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I39 

40.  The  Yogi's  mind  thus  meditating,  becomes  un- 

obstructed from  the  atomic  to  the  Infinite. 

The  mind,  by  this  practice,  easily  contemplates  the 
most  minute  thing,  as  well  as  the  biggest  thing.  Thus 
the  mind  waves  become  fainter. 

41.  The  Yogi  whose  Vrittis  have  thus  become  power- 

less (controlled)  obtains  in  the  receiver,  re- 
ceiving, and  received  (the  self,  the  mind  and 
external  objects),  concentratedness  and  same- 
ness, like  the  crystal  (before  different  coloured 
objects.) 

What  results  from  this  constant  meditation?  We 
must  remember  how  in  a  previous  aphorism  Patanjali 
went  into  the  various  states  of  meditation,  and  how  the 
first  will  be  the  gross,  and  the  second  the  fine  objects, 
and  from  them  the  advance  is  to  still  finer  objects  of 
meditation,  and  how,  in  all  these  meditations,  which 
are  only  of  the  first  degree,  not  very  high  ones,  we  get 
as  a  result  that  we  can  meditate  as  easily  on  the  fine 
as  on  the  grosser  objects.  Here  the  Yogi  sees  the 
three  things,  the  receiver,  the  received,  and  the  receiv- 
ing, corresponding  to  the  Soul,  the  object,  and  the 
mind.  There  are  three  objects  of  meditation  given  us. 
First  the  gross  things,  as  bodies,  or  material  objects, 
second  fine  things,  as  the  mind,  the  Chitta,  and  third 
the  Puru§a  qualified,  not  the  Puruia  itself,  but  the 
egosim.  By  practice,  the  Yogi  gets  established  in  all 
these  meditations.  Whenever  he  meditates  he  can 
keep  out  all  other  thought;  he  becomes  identified  with 


I40  RAJA   YOGA. 

that  on  which  he  meditates;  when  he  meditates  he  is 
like  a  piece  of  crystal;  before  flowers  the  crystal 
becomes  almost  identified  with  the  flowers.  If  the 
flower  is  red,  the  crystal  looks  red,  or  if  the  flower  is 
blue,  the  crystal  looks  blue. 

42.  Sound,  meaning,  and  resulting  knowledge,  being 

mixed  up,  is  (called  Samadhi)  with  reasoning. 

Sound  here  means  vibration;  meaning,  the  nerve  cur- 
rents which  conduct  it;  and  knowledge,  reaction.  All 
the  various  meditations  we  have  had  so  far,  Patanjali 
calls  Savitarka  (meditations  with  reasoning).  Later 
on  he  will  give  us  higher  and  higher  Dhydtias.  In 
these  that  are  called  "with  reasoning,"  we  keep  the 
dualty  of  subject  and  object,  which  results  from  the 
mixture  of  word,  meaning,  and  knowledge.  There 
is  first  the  external  vibration,  the  word;  this,  carried 
inward  by  the  sense  currents,  is  the  meaning.  After 
that  there  comes  a  reactionary  wave  in  the  CJiitta^  which 
is  knowledge,  but  the  mixture  of  these  three  make  up 
what  we  call  knowledge.  In  all  the  meditations  up  to 
this  we  get  this  mixture  as  object  of  meditation.  The 
next  Samadhi  is  higher. 

43.  The  Samadhi  called  without  reasoning  (comes) 

when  the  memory   is  purified,  or    devoid  of 

qualities,  expressing  only  the  meaning  (of  the 

meditated  object). 

It  is  by  practice  of  meditation  of  these  three  that  we 

come  to  the  state  where  these  three  do  not  mix.     We 

can  get  rid  of  them.     We  will  first  try  to  understand 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I4I 

what  these  three  are.  Here  is  the  Chitta ;  you  will 
always  remember  the  simile  of  the  lake,  the  mind- 
stuff,  and  the  vibration,  the  word,  the  sound,  like  a 
pulsation  coming  over  it.  You  have  that  calm  lake 
in  you,  and  I  pronounce  a  word,  "cow."  As  soon  as 
it  enters  through  your  ears  there  is  a  wave  produced 
in  your  Chitta  along  with  it.  So  that  wave  repre- 
sents the  idea  of  the  cow,  the  form  or  the  meaning 
as  we  call  it.  That  apparent  cow  that  you  know  is 
really  that  wave  in  the  mind-stuff,  and  that  comes  as 
a  reaction  to  the  internal  and  external  sound  vibra- 
tions, and  with  the  sound,  the  wave  dies  away;  that 
wave  can  never  exist  without  a  word.  You  may  ask 
how  it  is  when  we  only  think  of  the  cow,  and  do  not 
hear  a  sound.  You  make  that  sound  yourself.  You 
are  saying  "cow"  faintly  in  your  mind,  and  with  that 
comes  a  wave.  There  cannot  be  any  wave  without 
this  impulse  of  sound,  and  when  it  is  not  from  outside 
it  is  from  inside,  and  when  the  sound  dies,  the  wave 
dies.  What  remains?  The  result  of  the  reaction,  and 
that  is  knowledge.  These  three  are  so  closely  com- 
bined in  our  mind  that  we  cannot  separate  them.  When 
the  sound  comes,  the  senses  vibrate,  and  the  wave 
rises  in  reaction;  they  follow  so  closely  upon  one 
another  that  there  is  no  discerning  one  from  the  other; 
when  this  meditation  has  been  practised  for  a  long 
time,  memory,  the  receptacle  of  all  impressions, 
becomes  purified,  and  we  are  able  clearly  to  distinguish 
them  from  one  another.  This  is  called  ''Nirvitarka^** 
concentration  without  reasoning. 


142  RAJA   YOGA. 

44.  By  this  process  (the  concentrations)  with  dis- 

crimination and  without  discrimination,  whose 
objects  are  finer,  are  (also)  explained. 

A  process  similar  to  the  preceding  is  applied  again, 
only,  the  objects  to  be  taken  up  in  the  former  medita- 
tions are  gross;  in  this  they  are  fine. 

45.  The  finer  objects  end  with  the  Fradh^na. 

The  gross  objects  are  only  the  elements,  and  every- 
thing manufactured  out  of  them.  The  fine  objects 
begin  with  the  Tanmatras  or  fine  particles.  The  organs, 
the  mind,*  egoism,  the  mind-stuff  (the  cause  of  all 
manifestation)  the  equilibrium  state  of  Sattva,  Rajas 
and  Tamas  materials  —  called  Pradhdna  (ch\e(), Prakn'ti 
(nature),  or  Avyakta  (unmanifest),  are  all  included 
within  the  category  of  fine  objects.  The  Puruia  (the 
Soul)  alone  is  excepted  from  this  definition. 

46.  These  concentrations  are  with  seed. 

These  do  not  destroy  the  seeds  of  past  actions,  thus 
cannot  give  liberation,  but  what  they  bring  to  the 
Yogi  is  stated  in  the  following  aphorisms. 

47.  The  concentration  "without  reasoning"  being 

purified,  the  Chitta  becomes  firmly  fixed. 

48.  The  knowledge  in  that  is  called  "filled  with 

Truth." 

The  next  aphorism  will  explain  this. 

*The  mind,  or  common  sensory,  the  aggregate  of  all  senses. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I43 

49.  The  knowledge  that  is  gained  from  testimony 
and  inference  is  about  common  objects.  That 
from  the  Samadhi  just  mentioned  is  of  a  much 
higher  order,  being  able  to  penetrate  where 
inference  and  testimony  cannot  go. 

The  idea  is  that  we  have  to  get  our  knowledge  of 
ordinary  objects  by  direct  perception,  and  by  inference 
therefrom,  and  from  testimony  of  people  who  are  com- 
petent. By  "people  who  are  competent,"  the  Yogts 
always  mean  the  Rishis,  or  the  Seers  of  the  thoughts 
recorded  in  the  Scriptures  —  the  Vedas.  According  to 
them,  the  only  proof  of  the  Scriptures  is  that  they 
were  the  testimony  of  competent  persons,  yet  they  say 
the  Scriptures  cannot  take  us  to  realisation.  We  can 
read  all  the  Vedas^  and  yet  will  not  realise  anything, 
but  when  we  practise  their  teachings,  then  we  attain 
to  that  state  which  realises  what  the  Scriptures  say, 
which  penetrates  where  reason  cannot  go,  and  where 
neither  perception  nor  inference  can  go,  and  where 
the  testimony  of  others  cannot  avail.  This  is  what  is 
meant  by  this  aphorism,  that  realisation  is  real  religion, 
and  all  the  rest  is  only  preparation  —  hearing  lectures, 
or  reading  books,  or  reasoning,  is  merely  preparing  the 
ground;  it  is  not  religion.  Intellectual  assent,  and 
intellectual  dissent  are  not  religion.  The  central  idea 
of  the  Yogis  is  that  just  as  we  come  in  direct  contact 
with  objects  of  the  senses,  so  religion  even  can  be 
directly  perceived  in  a  far  more  intense  sense.  The 
truths  of  religion,  as  God  and  Soul,  cannot  be  perceived 


144  RAJA   YOGA. 

by  the  external  senses.  I  cannot  see  God  with  my 
eyes,  nor  can  I  touch  Him  with  my  hands,  and  we  also 
know  that  neither  can  we  reason  beyond  the  senses. 
Reason  leaves  us  at  a  point  quite  indecisive;  we  may 
reason  all  our  lives,  as  the  world  has  been  doing  for 
thousands  of  years,  and  the  result  is  that  we  find  we 
are  incompetent  to  prove  or  disprove  the  facts  of 
religion.  What  we  perceive  directly  we  take  as  the 
basis,  and  upon  that  basis  we  reason.  So  it  is  obvious 
that  reasoning  has  to  run  within  these  bounds  of  per 
ception.  It  can  never  go  beyond;  the  whole  scope  of 
realisation,  therefore,  is  beyond  sense  perception.  The 
Yogis  say  that  man  can  go  beyond  his  direct  sense  per- 
ception, and  beyond  his  reason  also.  Man  has  in  him 
the  faculty,  the  power,  of  transcending  his  intellect 
even,  and  that  power  is  in  every  being,  every  creature. 
By  the  practice  of  Yoga  that  power  is  aroused,  and 
then  man  transcends  the  ordinary  limits  of  reason,  and 
directly  perceives  things  which  are  beyond  all  reason. 

50.  The  resnlting  impression  from  this  Samadhi  ob- 
structs all  other  impressions. 

We  have  seen  in  the  foregoing  aphorism  that  the  only 
way  of  attaining  to  that  super-consciousness  is  by  con- 
centration, and  we  have  also  seen  that  what  hinder  the 
mind  from  concentration  are  the  past  Samskdras^ 
impressions.  All  of  you  have  observed  that  when  you 
are  trying  to  concentrate  your  mind,  your  thoughts 
wander.  When  you  are  trying  to  think  of  God,  that  is 
the  very  time  which  all  these  Samskdras  take  to  appear. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I45 

At  Other  times  they  are  not  so  active,  but  when  you 
want  them  not  to  be  they  are  sure  to  be  there,  trying 
their  best  to  crowd  inside  your  mind.  Why  should 
that  be  sor  Why  should  they  be  much  more  potent  at 
the  time  of  concentration?  It  is  because  you  are 
repressing  them  and  they  react  with  all  their  force. 
At  other  times  they  do  not  react.  How  countless  these 
old  past  impressions  must  be,  all  lodged  somewhere  in 
the  Chitta^  ready,  waiting  like  tigers  to  jump  up.  These 
have  to  be  suppressed  that  the  one  idea  which  we  like 
may  arise,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others.  Instead, 
they  are  all  struggling  to  come  up  at  the  same  time. 
These  are  the  various  powers  of  the  Samskdras  in 
hindering  concentration  of  the  mind,  so  this  Samddht 
which  has  just  been  given  is  the  best  to  be  practised, 
on  account  of  its  power  of  suppressing  the  Samskdras. 
The  Samskdra  which  v/ill  be  raised  by  this  sort  of  con- 
centration will  be  so  powerful  that  it  will  hinder  the 
action  of  the  others,  and  hold  them  in  check. 

51  By  the  restraint  of  even  this  (impression,  which 
ohstructs  all  other  impressions),  all  being  re- 
strained, comes  the  "  seedless  "  Samadhi. 

You  remember  that  our  goal  is  to  perceive  the  Soul 
itself.  We  cannot  perceive  the  Soul  because  it  has  got 
mingled  up  with  nature,  with  the  mind,  with  the  body. 
The  most  ignorant  man  thinks  his  body  is  the  Soul. 
The  more  learned  man  thinks  his  mind  is  the  Soul, 
but  both  of  these  are  mistaken.  What  makes  the 
Soul  get  mingled  up  with  all  this,  these  different  waves 
10 


146  RAJA   YOGA. 

in  the  Chitta  rise  and  cover  the  Soul,  and  we  only  see 
a  little  reflection  of  the  Soul  through  these  waves,  so, 
if  the  wave  is  one  of  anger,  we  see  the  Soul  as  angry; 
**  I  am  angry,"  we  say.  If  the  wave  is  a  wave  of  love 
we  see  ourselves  reflected  in  that  wave,  and  say  we  are 
loving.  If  that  wave  is  one  of  weakness,  and  the  Soul 
is  reflected  in  it,  we  think  we  are  weak.  These  various 
ideas  come  from  these  impressions,  these  Samskdras 
covering  the  Soul.  The  real  nature  of  the  Soul  is  not 
perceived  as  long  as  there  is  one  single  wave  in  the 
lake  of  the  Chitta^  this  real  nature  will  never  be  per- 
ceived until  all  the  waves  have  subsided;  so,  first, 
Patanjali  teaches  us  the  meaning  of  these  waves; 
secondly,  the  best  way  to  repress  them;  and  thirdly, 
how  to  make  one  wave  so  strong  as  to  suppress  all 
other  waves,  fire  eating  fire  as  it  were.  When  only  one 
remains  it  will  be  easy  to  suppress  that  also,  and  when 
that  is  gone,  this  Samddhi  of  concentration  is  called 
seedless;  it  leaves  nothing,  and  the  Soul  is  manifested 
just  as  It  is,  in  Its  own  glory.  Then  alone  we  know 
that  the  Soul  is  not  a  compound,  It  is  the  only  eternal 
simple  in  the  universe,  and,  as  such.  It  cannot  be  born, 
It  cannot  die.  It  is  immortal,  indestructible,  the  Ever 
living  Essence  of  intelligence. 


CHAPTER    II. 

CONCENTRATION  —  ITS    PRACTICE. 

1.  Mortification,  study,  and  surrendering  fruits  of 
work  to  God  are  called  Kriya  Yoga. 

Those  SamddJiis  with  which  we  ended  our  last  chapter 
are  very  difficult  to  attain;  so  we  must  take  them  up 
slowly.  The  first  step,  the  preliminary  step,  is  called 
Kriya  Yoga.  Literally  this  means  work,  working 
towards  Yoga.  The  organs  are  the  horses,  the  mind 
is  the  reins,  the  intellect  is  the  charioteer,  the  soul  is 
the  rider,  and  this  body  is  the  chariot.  The  master  of 
the  household,  the  King,  the  Self  of  man,  is  sitting  in 
this  chariot.  If  the  horses  are  very  strong,  and  do 
not  obey  th^  reins,  if  the  charioteer,  the  intellect,  does 
not  know  how  to  control  the  horses,  then  this  chariot 
will  coriie  to  grief.  But  if  the  organs,  the  horses,  are 
well  controlled,  and  if  the  reins,  the  mind,  are  well  held 
in  the  hands  of  the  charioteer,  the  intellect,  the  chariot 
reaches  the  goal.  What  is  meant,  therefore,  by  this 
mortification?  Holding  the  reins  firmly  while  guiding 
this  body  and  mind;  not  letting  the  body  do  anything 
it  likes,  but  keeping  them  both  in  proper  control. 
Study.  What  is  meant  by  study  in  this  case?  Not 
study  of  novels,  or  fiction,  or  story  books,  but  study 
of  those  books  which  teach  the  liberation  of  the  soul. 

[147] 


148  RAJA   YOGA. 

Then  again  this  study  does  not  mean  controversial 
studies  at  all.  The  Yogi  is  supposed  to  have  finished 
his  period  of  controversy.  He  has  had  enough  of  that, 
and  has  become  satisfied.  He  only  studies  to  intensify 
his  convictions.  Fdda  and  Siddhdnta.  These  are  the 
two  sorts  of  Scriptural  knowledge,  Vdda  (the  argu- 
mentative) and  Siddhd?ita  (the  decisive).  When  a  man 
is  entirely  ignorant  he  takes  up  the  first  part  of  this, 
the  argumentative  fighting,  and  reasoning, /r<?  and  co7i.-j 
and  when  he  has  finished  that  he  takes  up  the  Siddhdnta^ 
the  decisive,  arriving  at  a  conclusion.  Simply  arriving 
at  this  conclusion  will  not  do.  It  must  be  intensified. 
Books  are  infinite  in  number,  and  time  is  short;  there- 
fore this  is  the  secret  of  knowledge,  to  take  that  which 
is  essential.  Take  that  out,  and  then  try  to  live  up  to 
it.  There  is  an  old  simile  in  India  that  if  you  place  a 
cup  of  milk  before  a  Raja  Hamsa  (swan)  with  plenty  of 
water  in  it,  he  will  take  all  the  milk  and  leave  the  water. 
In  that  way  we  should  take  what  is  of  value  in  knowl- 
edge, and  leave  the  dross.  All  these  intellectual  gym- 
nastics are  necessary  at  first.  We  must  not  go  blindly 
into  anything.  The  Yogi  has  passed  the  argumenta- 
tive stage,  and  has  come  to  a  conclusion,  which  is  like 
the  rocks,  immovable.  The  only  thing  he  now  seeks 
to  do  is  to  intensify  that  conclusion.  Do  not  argue^ 
he  says;  if  one  forces  arguments  upon  you,  be  silent. 
Do  not  answer  any  argument,  but  go  away  free,  because- 
arguments  only  disturb  the  mind.  The  only  thing  n- 
to  train  the  intellect,  so  what  is  the  use  of  disturbinjj 
it  any  more.     The  intellect  is  but  a  weak  instrumen  . 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I49 

*ind  can  give  us  only  knowledge  limited  by  the  senses; 
the  Yogt  wants  to  go  beyond  the  senses;  therefore 
intellect  is  of  no  use  to  him.  He  is  certain  of  this,  and 
therefore  is  silent,  and  does  not  argue.  Every  argu- 
ment throws  his  mind  out  of  balance,  creates  a  disturb- 
ance in  the  Chitta^  and  this  disturbance  is  a  drawback. 
These  argumentations  and  searchings  of  the  reason 
are  only  on  the  way.  There  are  much  higher  things 
behind  them.  The  whole  of  life  is  not  for  schoolboy 
fights  and  debating  societies.  "  By  surrendering  the 
fruits  of  work  to  God  "  is  to  take  to  ourselves  neither 
credit  not  blame,  but  to  give  both  up  to  the  Lord,  and 
be  at  peace. 

2.  (They   are   for)  the   practice    of   SamadM    and 

minimizing  the  pain-bearing  obstructions. 

Most  of  us  make  our  minds  like  spoiled  children, 
allowing  them  to  do  whatever  they  want.  Therefore 
it  is  necessary  that  there  should  be  constant  practice 
of  the  previous  mortifications,  in  order  to  gain  control 
of  the  mind,  and  bring  it  into  subjection.  The  obstruc- 
tions to  Yoga  arise  from  lack  of  this  control,  and  cause 
us  pain.  They  can  only  be  removed  by  denying  the 
mind,  and  holding  it  in  check,  through  these  various 
means. 

3.  The    pain-bearing  obstructions  are  —  ignorance, 

egoism,  attachment,  aversion,  and  clinging  to  life. 

These  are  the  five  pains,  the  fivefold  tie  that  binds 
us  down.    Of  course  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  all  the 


150  rAja  yoga. 

rest.  She  is  the  only  cause  of  all  our  misery.  What 
else  can  make  us  miserable?  The  nature  of  the  Soul  is 
eternal  bliss.  What  can  make  it  sorrowful  except 
ignorance,  hallucination,  delusion;  all  this  pain  of  the 
soul  is  simply  delusion. 

4.  Ignorance  is  the  productive  field  of  all  these  that 

follow,  whether  they  are  dormant,  attenuated, 
overpowered,  or  expanded. 

Impressions  are  the  cause  of  these,  and  these  impres- 
sions exist  in  different  degrees.  There  are  the  dormant. 
You  often  hear  the  expression  "innocent  as  a  baby," 
yet  in  the  baby  may  be  the  state  of  a  demon  or  of  a 
god,  which  will  come  out  by  and  by.  In  the  Vogt, 
these  impressions,  the  Samskdras  left  by  past  actions, 
are  attenuated;  that  is,  in  a  very  fine  state,  and  he  can 
control  them,  and  not  allow  them  to  become  manifest. 
Overpowered  means  that  sometimes  one  set  of  impres- 
sions is  held  down  for  awhile  by  those  that  are  stronger, 
but  they  will  come  out  when  that  repressing  cause  is 
removed.  The  last  state  is  the  expanded,  when  the 
Samskdras^  having  helpful  surroundings,  have  attained 
to  great  activity,  either  as  good  or  evil. 

5.  Ignorance  is  taking  that  which  is  non-eternal, 

impure,  painful,  and  non-Self,  for  the  eternal, 
pure,  happy,  Atman  (Self). 

All  these  various  sorts  of  impressions  have  one  source. 
Ignorance.     We  have  first  to  learn  what  ignorance  is. 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I5I 

All  of  US  think  that  "  I  am  the  body,"  and  not  the 
Self,  the  pure,  the  effulgent,  the  ever  blissful,  and  that 
is  ignorance.  We  think  of  man,  and  see  man  as  body. 
This  is  the  great  delusion. 

6.  Egoism  is  the  identification  of  the  seer  with  the 

instrument  of  seeing. 

The  seer  is  really  the  Self,  the  pure  one,  the  ever 
holy,  the  infinite,  the  immortal.  That  is  the  Self  of 
man.  And  what  are  the  instruments?  The  Chitta^  or 
mind-stuff,  the  Buddhi^  determinative  faculty,  the 
Ma?iaSy  or  mind,  and  the  Indriydni^  or  sense  organs. 
These  are  the  instruments  for  him  to  see  the  external 
world,  and  the  identification  of  the  Self  with  the  instru- 
ments is  what  is  called  the  ignorance  of  egoism.  We 
say  **  I  am  the  mind,  I  am  thought;  I  am  angry,  or  I 
am  happy."  How  can  we  be  angry,  and  how  can  we 
hate?  We  should  identify  ourselves  with  the  Self;  that 
cannot  change.  If  it  is  unchangeable,  how  can  it  be 
one  moment  happy,  and  one  moment  unhappy?  It  is 
formless,  infinite,  omnipresent.  What  can  change  it? 
Beyond  all  law.  What  can  affect  it  ?  Nothing  in  the 
universe  can  produce  an  effect  on  it,  yet,  through 
ignorance,  we  identify  ourselves  with  the  mind-stuff, 
and  think  we  feel  pleasure  or  pain. 

7.  Attachment  is  that  which  dwells  on  pleasure. 

We  find  pleasure  in  certain  things,  and  the  mind,  likt 
a  current,  flows  towards  them,  and  that,  following  the 


152  rAja  yoga. 

pleasure  centre,  as  it  were,  is  attachment.  We  are 
never  attached  to  anyone  in  whom  we  do  not  find 
pleasure.  We  find  pleasure  in  very  queer  things  some- 
times, but  the  definition  is  just  the  same;  wherever  we 
find  pleasure,  there  we  are  attached. 

8.  Aversion  is  that  which  dwells  on  pain. 

That  which  gives  us  pain  we  immediately  seek  to  get 
away  from. 

9.  Flowing  through  its  own  nature,  and  established 

even  in  the  learned,  is  the  clinging  to  life. 

This  clinging  to  life  you  see  manifested  in  every 
animal,  and  upon  it  many  attempts  have  been  made  to 
build  the  theory  of  a  future  life,  because  men  like  their 
lives  so  much  that  they  desire  a  future  life  also.  Of 
course  it  goes  without  saying  that  this  argument  is 
without  much  value,  but  the  most  curious  part  of  it  is 
that,  in  Western  Countries,  the  idea  that  this  clinging 
to  life  indicates  a  possibility  of  a  future  life  applies 
only  to  men,  but  does  not  include  animals.  In  India 
this  clinging  to  life  has  been  one  of  the  arguments  to 
prove  past  experience  and  existence.  For  instance,  if 
it  be  true  that  all  our  knowledge  has  come  from 
experience,  then  it  is  sure  that  that  which  w^e  never 
experienced  we  cannot  imagine,  or  understand.  As 
soon  as  chickens  are  hatched  they  begin  to  pick  up 
food.  Many  times  it  has  been  seen  where  ducks  have 
been  hatched  by  hens,  that,  as  soon  as  they  come  out 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  1 53 

of  the  eggs,  they  flew  to  water,  and  the  mother  thought 
they  would  be  drowned.  If  experience  be  the  only 
source  of  knowledge,  where  did  these  chickens  learn 
to  pick  up  food,  or  the  ducklings  that  the  water  was 
their  natural  element?  If  you  say  it  is  instinct,  it 
means  nothing  —  it  is  simply  giving  a  word,  but  is  no 
explanation.  What  is  this  instinct?  We  have  many 
instincts  in  ourselves.  For  instance,  most  of  you 
ladies  play  the  piano,  and  remember,  when  you  first 
learned,  how  carefully  you  had  to  put  your  fingers  on 
the  black  and  the  white  keys,  one  after  the  other,  but 
now,  after  long  years  of  practice,  you  can  talk  with 
your  friends,  and  your  hand  goes  on  just  the  same. 
It  has  become  instinct.  So  with  every  work  we  do; 
by  practice  it  becomes  instinct,  it  becomes  auto- 
matic, but  so  far  as  we  know,  all  the  cases  which 
we  now  regard  as  automatic,  are  degenerated  rea- 
son. In  the  language  of  the  Vogi,  instinct  is  involved 
reason.  Discrimination  becomes  involved,  and  gets 
to  be  automatic  Sarnskdras.  Therefore  it  is  perfectly 
logical  to  think  that  all  we  call  instinct  in  this 
world  is  simply  involved  reason.  As  reason  cannot 
come  without  experience,  all  instinct  is,  therefore,  the 
result  of  past  experience.  Chickens  fear  the  hawk, 
and  ducklings  love  the  water,  and  these  are  both  the 
result  of  past  experience.  Then  the  question  is 
whether  that  experience  belongs  to  a  particular  soul, 
or  to  the  body  simply,  whether  this  experience  which 
comes  to  the  duck  is  the  duck's  forefather's  experience, 
or  the  duck's  own  experience.     Modern  scientific  men 


154  R^JA  YOGA. 

hold  that  it  belongs  to  the  body,  but  the  Vogfs  hold 
that  it  is  the  experience  of  the  mind,  transmitted 
through  the  body.  This  is  called  the  theory  of  rein- 
carnation. We  have  seen  that  all  our  knowledge, 
whether  we  call  it  perception  or  reason,  or  instinct, 
must  come  through  that  one  channel  called  experience, 
and  all  that  we  now  call  instinct  is  the  result  of  past 
experience,  degenerated  into  instinct,  and  that  instinct 
regenerates  into  reason  again.  So  on  throughout  the 
universe,  and  upon  this  has  been  built  one  of  the  chief 
arguments  for  reincarnation,  in  India.  The  recurring 
experiences  of  various  fears,  in  course  of  time,  produce 
this  clinging  to  life.  That  is  why  the  child  is  instinc- 
tively afraid,  because  the  past  experience  of  pain  is 
there.  Even  in  the  most  learned  men,  who  know  that 
this  body  will  go,  and  who  say  "never  mind;  we  have 
hundreds  of  bodies;  the  soul  cannot  die" — even  in 
them,  with  all  their  intellectual  convictions,  we  still 
find  this  clinging  on  to  life.  What  is  this  clinging  to 
life?  We  have  seen  that  it  has  become  instinctive. 
In  the  psychological  language  of  the  Yogis  it  has 
become  Samskdras.  The  Satriskdras,  fine  and  hidden, 
are  sleeping  in  the  Chitta.  All  these  past  experiences 
of  death,  all  that  which  we  call  instinct,  is  experience 
become  sub-conscious.  It  liv^es  in  the  Chitta^  and  is 
not  inactive,  but  is  working  underneath.  These  Chitta 
Vrittis^  these  mind-waves,  which  are  gross,  we  can 
appreciate  and  feel;  they  can  be  more  easily  controlled, 
but  what  about  these  finer  instincts?  How  can  they 
be  controlled?     When  I  am  angry  my  whole  mind  has 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I55 

become  a  huge  wave  of  anger.  I  feel  it,  see  it,  handle 
it,  can  easily  manipulate  it,  can  fight  with  it,  but  I 
shall  not  succeed  perfectly  in  the  fight  until  I  can  get 
down  below.  A  man  says  something  very  harsh  to  me, 
and  I  begin  to  feel  that  I  am  getting  heated,  and  he 
goes  on  till  I  am  perfectly  angry,  and  forget  myself, 
identify  myself  with  anger.  When  he  first  began  to 
abuse  me  I  still  thought  "I  am  going  to  be  angry." 
Anger  was  one  thing  and  I  was  another,  but  when  I 
became  angry,  I  was  anger.  These  feelings  have  to 
be  controlled  in  the  germ,  the  root,  in  their  fine  forms, 
before  even  we  have  become  conscious  that  they  are 
acting  on  us.  With  the  vast  majority  of  mankind  the 
fine  states  of  these  passions  are  not  even  known,  the 
state  when  they  are  slowly  coming  from  beneath  con- 
sciousness. When  a  bubble  is  rising  from  the  bottom 
of  the  lake  we  do  not  see  it,  or  even  when  it  is  nearly 
come  to  the  surface;  it  is  only  when  it  bursts  and 
makes  a  ripple  that  we  know  it  is  there.  We  shall  only 
be  successful  in  grappling  with  the  waves  when  we 
can  get  hold  of  them  in  their  fine  causes,  and  until  you 
can  get  hold  of  them,  and  subdue  them  before  they 
become  gross,  there  is  no  hope  of  conquering  any  pas- 
sion perfectly.  To  control  our  passions  we  have  to 
control  them  at  their  very  roots;  then  alone  shall  we 
be  able  to  burn  out  their  very  seeds.  As  fried  seeds 
thrown  into  the  ground  will  never  come  up,  so  these 
passions  will  never  arise. 


156  RAJA   YOGA. 

10.  They,  to-be  -  rej  ected  -  by  -  opposite  -  modifications^ 

are  fine. 

How  are  these  fine  Samskdras  to  be  controlled  ?  We 
have  to  begin  with  the  big  waves,  and  come  down  and 
down.  For  instance,  when  a  big  wave  of  anger  has 
come  into  the  mind,  how  are  we  to  control  that  ? 
Just  by  raising  a  big  opposing  wave.  Think  of  love. 
Sometimes  a  mother  is  very  angry  with  her  husband, 
and  while  in  that  state  the  baby  comes  in,  and  she 
kisses  the  baby;  the  old  wave  dies  out,  and  a  new 
wave  arises,  love  for  the  child.  That  suppresses  the 
other  one.  Love  is  opposite  to  anger.  So  we  find 
that  by  raising  the  opposite  waves  we  can  conquer 
those  which  we  want  to  reject.  Then,  if  we  can  raise 
in  our  fine  nature  these  fine  opposing  waves,  they  will 
check  the  fine  workings  of  anger  beneath  the  conscious 
surface.  We  have  seen  now  that  all  these  instinctive 
actions  first  began  as  conscious  actions,  and  became 
finer  and  finer.  So,  if  good  waves  in  the  conscious 
Chitta  be  constantly  raised,  they  will  go  down,  become 
subtle,  and  oppose  the  Samskdra  forms  of  evil  thoughts. 

11.  By  meditation,   their  modifications   are  to  be 

rejected. 

Meditation  is  one  of  the  great  means  of  controlling 
the  rising  of  these  big  waves.  By  meditation  you  can 
make  the  mind  subdue  these  waves,  and,  if  you  go  on 
practising  meditation  for  days,  and  months,  and  years, 
until  it  has  become  a  habit,  until  it  will  come  in  spite 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  1 57 

of  yourself,  anger  and  hatred  will  be  controlled  and 
checked. 

12.  The  receptacle  of  works  has  its  root  in  these 
pain-hearing  ohstructions,  and  their  experience 
in  this  visible  life,  or  in  the  unseen  life. 

By  the  receptacle  of  works  is  meant  the  sum-total  of 
these  Samskdras.  Whatever  work  we  do,  the  mind  is 
thrown  into  a  wave,  and,  after  the  work  is  finished,  we 
think  the  wave  is  gone.  No.  It  has  only  become 
fine,  but  it  is  still  there.  When  we  try  to  remembet 
the  thing,  it  comes  up  again  and  becomes  a  wave.  So 
it  was  there;  if  it  had  not  been  there,  there  would  not 
have  been  memory.  So,  every  action,  every  thought, 
good  or  bad,  just  goes  down  and  becomes  fine,  and  is 
there  stored  up.  They  are  called  pain-bearing  obstruc- 
tions, both  happy  and  unhappy  thoughts,  because 
according  to  the  Yogis^  both,  in  the  long  run,  bring 
pain.  All  happiness  which  comes  from  the  senses  will, 
eventually,  bring  pain.  All  enjoyment  will  make  us 
thirst  for  more,  and  that  brings  pain  as  its  result. 
There  is  no  limit  to  man's  desires;  he  goes  on  desir- 
ing, and  when  he  comes  to  a  point  where  desire  can- 
not be  fulfilled,  the  result  is  pain.  Therefore  the 
Yogis  regard  the  sum-total  of  the  impressions,  good  or 
evil,  as  pain-bearing  obstructions ;  they  obstruct  the  way 
to  freedom  of  the  Soul.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
Samskdras,  the  fine  roots  of  all  our  works;  they  are  the 
causes  which  will  again  bring  effects,  either  in  this  life, 
or  in   the  lives  to  come.     In  exceptional  cases,  when 


158  rAja  yoga. 

these  Samskdras  are  very  strong,  they  bear  fruit 
quickly;  exceptional  acts  of  wickedness,  or  of  good- 
ness, bring  their  fruits  in  this  life.  The  Yogis  even 
hold  that  men  who  are  able  to  acquire  a  tremendous 
power  of  good  Samskdras  do  not  have  to  die,  but,  even 
in  this  life,  can  change  their  bodies  into  god-bodies. 
There  are  several  cases  mentioned  by  the  Yogis  in  their 
books.  These  men  change  the  very  material  of  their 
bodies;  they  re-arrange  the  molecules  in  such  fashion 
that  they  have  no  more  sickness,  and  what  we  call 
death  does  not  come  to  them.  Why  should  not  this  be  ? 
The  physiological  meaning  of  food  is  assimilation  of 
energy  from  the  sun.  This  energy  has  reached  the 
plant,  the  plant  is  eaten  by  an  animal,  and  the  animal 
by  us.  The  science  of  it  is  that  we  take  so  much 
energy  from  the  sun,  and  make  it  part  of  ourselves. 
That  being  the  case,  why  should  there  be  only  one  way 
of  assimilating  energy  ?  The  plant's  way  is  not  the 
same  as  ours;  the  earth's  process  of  assimilating 
energy  differs  from  our  own.  But  all  assimilate  energy 
in  some  form  or  other.  The  Yogis  say  that  they  are 
able  to  assimilate  energy  by  the  power  of  the  mind 
alone,  that  they  can  draw  in  as  much  as  they  desire 
without  recourse  to  the  ordinary  methods.  As  a  spider 
makes  his  net  out  of  his  own  substance,  and  becomes 
bound  in  his  net,  and  cannot  go  anywhere  except  along 
the  lines  of  that  net,  so  we  have  projected  out  of  our 
own  substance  this  net-work  called  the  nerves,  and  we 
cannot  work  except  through  the  channels  of  those 
nerves.     The  Yogi  says  we  need  not  be  bound  by  that 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I59 

Similarly,  we  can  send  electricity  to  any  part  of  the 
world,  but  we  have  to  send  it  by  means  of  wires. 
Nature  can  send  a  vast  mass  of  electricity  without  any 
wires  at  all.  Why  cannot  we  do  the  same  ?  We  can 
send  mental  electricity.  What  we  call  mind  is  very 
much  the  same  as  electricity.  It  is  clear  that  this 
nerve  fluid  has  some  amount  of  electricity,  because  it 
is  polarised,  and  it  answers  all  electrical  directions. 
We  can  only  send  our  electricity  through  these  nerve 
channels.  Why  not  send  the  mental  electricity  without 
this  aid  ?  The  Yogi  says  it  is  perfectly  possible  and 
practicable,  and  that  when  you  can  do  that  you  will 
work  all  over  the  universe.  You  will  be  able  to  work 
with  any  body  anywhere,  without  the  help  of  any  nerv- 
ous system.  When  the  soul  is  acting  through  these 
channels  we  say  a  man  is  living  and  when  those  chan- 
nels die  the  man  is  said  to  be  dead.  But  when  a  man 
is  able  to  act  either  with  or  without  these  channels, 
birth  and  death  will  have  no  meaning  for  him.  All 
the  bodies  in  the  universe  are  made  up  of  Tanmdtras^ 
and  it  is  only  in  the  arrangement  of  them  that  there 
comes  a  difference.  If  you  are  the  arranger  you  can 
arrange  that  body  in  one  way  or  another.  Who  makes 
up  this  body  but  you  ?  Who  eats  the  food  ?  If  an- 
other ate  the  food  for  you  you  would  not  live  long. 
Who  makes  the  blood  out  of  it  ?  You,  certainly.  Who 
assimilates  the  blood,  and  sends  it  through  the  veins? 
You.  Who  creates  the  nerves,  and  makes  all  the 
muscles  ?  You  are  the  manufacturer,  out  of  your  own 
substance.    You  are  the  manufacturer  of  the  body,  and 


i6o  rAja  yoga. 

you  live  in  it.  Only  we  have  lost  the  knowledge  of 
how  to  make  it.  We  have  become  automatic,  de- 
generate. We  have  forgotten  the  process  of  manufac- 
ture. So,  what  we  do  automatically  has  again  to  be 
regulated.  We  are  the  creators  and  we  have  to  regu- 
late that  creation,  and  as  soon  as  we  can  do  that  we 
shall  be  able  to  manufacture  just  as  we  like,  and  then 
we  shall  have  neither  birth  nor  death,  disease,  or 
anything. 

13.  The  root  being  there,  the  fruition  comes  (in  the 
form  of)  species,  life,  and  experience  of  plea- 
sure and  pain. 

The  roots,  the  causes,  the  Samskdfas  being  there, 
they  again  manifest,  and  form  the  effects.  The  cause 
dying  down  becomes  the  effect,  and  the  effect  becomes 
more  subtle,  and  becomes  the  cause  of  the  next  effect. 
The  tree  bears  a  seed,  and  becomes  the  cause  of  the 
next  tree,  and  so  on.  All  our  works  now,  are  the 
effects  of  past  Samskdras.  Again,  these  Sa?nskdras  be- 
come the  cause  of  future  actions,  and  thus  we  go  on. 
So  this  aphorism  says  that  the  cause  being  there,  the 
fruit  must  come,  in  the  form  of  species;  one  will  be 
a  man,  another  an  angel,  another  an  animal,  another  a 
demon.  Then  there  are  different  effects  in  life;  one 
man  lives  fifty  years,  another  a  hundred,  and  another 
dies  in  two  years,  and  never  attains  maturity;  all  these 
differences  in  life  are  regulated  by  these  past  actions. 
One  man  is  born,  as  it  were,  for  pleasure;  if  he  buries 
himself  in   a   forest    pleasure  will  follow    him    there. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  l6l 

Another  man,  wherever  he  goes,  pain  follows  him^ 
everything  becomes  painful.  It  is  all  the  result  of 
their  own  past.  According  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
Vogh  all  virtuous  actions  bring  pleasure,  and  all  vicious 
actions  bring  pain.  Any  man  who  does  wicked  deeds 
is  sure  to  reap  the  fruit  of  them  in  the  form  of  pain. 

14.  They  bear  fruit  as  pleasure  or  pain,  caused  by 

virtue  or  vice. 

15.  To  the  discriminating,  all  is,  as  it  were,  painful 

on  account  of  everything  bringing  pain,  either  • 
in  the  consequence,  or  in  apprehension,  or  in 
attitude  caused  by  impressions,  also  on  account 
of  the  counter  action  of  qualities. 

The  Vogfs  say  that  the  man  who  has  discriminating 
powers,  the  man  of  good  sense,  sees  through  all  these 
various  things,  which  are  called  pleasure  and  pain,  and 
knows  that  they  are  always  equally  distributed,  and 
that  one  follows  the   other,  and  melts  into  the  other; 
he  sees  that  men  are  following  an  ignis  fatuus  all  their 
lives,    and    never  succeed    in    fulfilling   their   desires. 
There  was  never   a   love   in   this  world  which   did   not 
know   decay.      The   great    king    YudiSthira  once    said 
that   the   most  wonderful   thing   in   life   is   that  every 
moment  we  see   people  dying  around  us,  and  yet  we 
think  we  shall  never  die.    Surrounded  by  fools  on  every 
side,  we   think  we   are   the   only   exceptions,  the   only 
learned  men.     Surrounded  by  all  sorts  of  experiences 
of  fickleness,  we  think  our  love  is  the  only  lasting  love. 
How  can  that  be  ?     Even  love  is  selfish,  and  the  Yogt 


II 


i62  rAja  yoga. 

says  that,  in  the  end,  we  shall  find  that  even  the  love 
of  husbands  and  wives,  and  children  and  friends,  slowly 
decays.  Decadence  seizes  everything  in  this  life.  It 
is  only  when  everything,  even  love,  fails,  that,  with  a 
flash,  man  finds  out  how  vain,  how  dream-like  is  this 
world.  Then  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  Vairdgyam 
(renunciation),  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  beyond.  It  is 
only  by  giving  up  this  world  that  the  other  comes; 
never  through  holding  on  to  this  one.  Never  yet  was 
there  a  great  soul  who  had  not  to  reject  sense  pleas- 
ures and  enjoyments  to  become  such.  The  cause  of 
misery  is  the  clash  between  the  different  forces  of 
nature,  one  dragging  one  way,  and  another  dragging 
another,  rendering  permanent  happiness  impossible. 

16.  The  misery  which  is  not   yet   come   is  to  be 
avoided. 

Some  Karma  we  have  worked  out  already,  some  we 
are  working  out  now  in  the  present,  and  some  is  waiting 
to  bear  fruit  in  the  future.  That  which  we  have 
worked  out  already  is  past  and  gone. 

That  which  we  are  experiencing  now  we  will  have  to 
work  out,  and  it  is  only  that  which  is  waiting  to  bear 
fruit  in  the  future  that  we  can  conquer  and  control,  so 
all  our  forces  should  be  directed  towards  the  control  of 
that  Karma  which  has  not  yet  borne  fruit.  That  is 
meant  in  the  previous  aphorism,  when  Patanjali  says 
that  these  various  Samskdras  are  to  be  controlled  by 
counteracting  waves. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  163 

17.  The  cause  of  that  which  is  to  be  avoided  is  the 
•         junction  of  the  seer  and  the  seen. 

Who  is  the  seer  ?  The  Self  of  Man,  the  Puruia, 
What  is  the  seen  ?  The  whole  of  nature,  beginning 
with  the  mind,  down  to  gross  matter.  All  this  pleas- 
ure and  pain  arises  from  the  junction  between  this 
Puruia  and  the  mind.  The  Puruia^  you  must  remem- 
ber, according  to  this  philosophy,  is  pure;  it  is  when 
it  is  joined  to  nature,  and  by  reflection,  that  it  appears 
to  feel  either  pleasure  or  pain. 

18.  The  experienced  is  composed  of  elements  and 

organs,  is  of  the  nature  of  illumination,  action 
and  inertia,  and  is  for  the  purpose  of  exper- 
ience and  release  (of  the  experiencer). 

The  experienced,  that  is  nature,  is  composed  of 
elements  and  organs  —  the  elements  gross  and  fine 
which  compose  the  whole  of  nature,  and  the  organs  of 
the  senses,  mind,  etc.,  and  is  of  the  nature  of  illumina- 
tion, action,  and  inertia.  These  are  what  in  Sanskrit 
are  called  Sattna  (illumination).  Rajas  (action),  and 
Tamas  (inertia);  each  is  for  the  purpose  of  experience 
and  release.  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  whole  of 
nature  ?  That  the  Puruia  may  gain  experience.  The 
Puruia  has,  as  it  were,  forgotten  its  mighty,  godly 
nature.  There  is  a  story  that  the  king  of  the  gods, 
Tndra,  once  became  a  pig,  wallowing  in  mire;  he  had 
a  she  pig,  and  a  lot  of  baby  pigs,  and  was  very  happy. 
Then  some  other  angels   saw  his   plight,  and   came  to 


164  RAJA   YOGA. 

him,  and  told  him,  "You  are  the  king  of  the  gods, 
you  have  all  the  gods  command.  Why  are  you  here  ?  " 
But  Indra  said,  "  Let  me  be;  I  am  all  right  here;  I  do 
not  care  for  the  heavens,  while   I  have  this  sow  and 
these  little  pigs."     The  poor  gods  were  at  their  wits* 
end  what  to  do.     After  a  time  they  decided  to  slowly 
come  and  slay  one  of  the  li^'tle  pigs,  and  then  another, 
until   they  had  slain  all   the   pigs,  and   the   sow  too. 
When  all  were  dead  Indra  began  to  weep  and  mourn. 
Then  the  gods  ripped  his  pig  body  open  and  he  came 
out  of  it,  and  began  to  laugh  when  he  realised  what  a 
hideous  dream  he  had  had;  he,  the  king  of  the  gods, 
to  have  become  a  pig,  and  to  think  that  that  pig-life 
was  the  only  life!      Not  only  so,  but  to  have  wanted 
the  whole   universe   to  come  into   the  pig  life!     The 
Puruia^  when   it  identifies   itself  with   nature,  forgets 
that  it  is  pure  and  infinite.     The  Puru^a  does  not  live; 
it  is  life  itself.     It  does  not  exist;  it  is  existence  itself. 
The  Soul  does  not  know;  it  is  knowledge  itself.     It  is 
an  entire  mistake  to  say  the   Soul   lives,  or   knows,  01 
loves.     Love  and  existence  are  not  the  qualities  of  the 
Furuia^  but  its  essence.     When  they  get  reflected  upon 
something  you  may  call    them  the  qualities   of  that 
something.       But  they    are  not  the   qualities   of   the 
Puruia^   but  the  essence  of    this    great   At?nan,    this 
Infinite   Being,  without  birth  or  death.  Who  is  estab- 
lished  in   His  own  glory,   but  appears  as  if  become 
degenerate  until  if  you  approach   to  tell  Him,  **  You 
are  not  a  pig,"  he  begins  to  squeal  and  bite.     Thus 
with  us  all  in  this  Mdyd^  this  dream  world,  where  it  is 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  I65 

all  misery,  weeping,  and  crying,  where  a  few  golden 
balls  are  rolled,  and  the  world  scrambles  after  them. 
You  were  never  bound  by  laws,  Nature  never  had  a 
bond  for  you.  That  is  what  the  Vogf  tells  you;  have 
patience  to  learn  it.  And  the  Vogi  shows  how,  by 
junction  with  this  nature,  and  identifying  itself  with 
the  mind  and  the  world,  the  Puriisa  thinks  itself  miser- 
able. Then  the  Yogi  goes  on  to  show  you  that  the 
way  out  is  through  experience.  You  have  to  get  all 
this  experience,  but  finish  it  quickly.  We  have  placed 
ourselves  in  this  net,  and  will  have  to  get  out.  We 
have  got  ourselves  caught  in  the  trap,  and  we  will 
have  to  work  out  our  freedom.  So  get  this  experience 
of  husbands  and  wives,  and  friends,  and  little  loves, 
and  you  will  get  through  them  safely  if  you  never  for- 
get what  you  really  are.  Never  forget  this  is  only  a 
momentary  state,  and  that  we  have  to  pass  through  it. 
Experience  is  the  one  great  teacher  —  experiences  of 
pleasure  and  pain  —  but  know  they  are  only  experi- 
ences, and  will  all  lead,  step  by  step,  to  that  state 
when  all  these  things  will  become  small,  and  the 
Purida  will  be  so  great  that  this  whole  universe  will 
be  as  a  drop  in  the  ocean,  and  will  fall  off  by  its  own 
nothingness.  We  have  to  go  through  these  experi- 
ences, but  let  us  never  forget  the  ideal. 

19.  The  states  of  the  qualities  are  the  defined,  the 
undefined,  the  indicated  only,  and  the  signless. 

The  system  of  Yoga  is  built  entirely  on  the  philoso- 
phy of  the   SdnkhyaSy  as  I  told  you    in    some    of    the 


l66  RAJA  YOGA. 

previous  lectures,  and  here  again  I  will  remind  you  o! 
the  cosmology  of  the  Sdnkhya  philosophy.  According  to 
the  Sdnkhyas^  nature  is  both  the  material  and  the  effi- 
cient cause  of  this  universe.  In  this  nature  there  are 
three  sorts  of  materials,  the  Sattva^  the  Rajas^  and  the 
Tamas.  The  Tamas  material  is  all  that  is  dark,  all 
that  is  ignorant  and  heavy;  and  XkvQ  Rajas  \s,  activity. 
The  Sattva  is  calmness,  light.  When  nature  is  in  the 
state  before  creation,  it  is  called  by  them  Avyaktam^ 
undefined,  or  indiscrete;  that  is,  in  which  there  is  no 
distinction  of  form  or  name,  a  state  in  which  these 
three  materials  are  held  in  perfect  balance.  Then  the 
balance  is  disturbed,  these  different  materials  begin  to 
mingle  in  various  fashions,  and  the  result  is  this  uni- 
verse. In  every  man,  also,  these  three  materials  exist. 
When  the  Sattva  material  prevails  knowledge  comes. 
When  the  Rajas  material  prevails  activity  comes,  and 
when  the  Tamas  material  prevails  darkness  comes, 
and  lassitude,  idleness,  ignorance.  According  to  the 
Sdnkhya  theory,  the  highest  manifestation  of  this 
nature,  consisting  of  these  three  materials,  is  what 
they  call  Mahat,  or  intelligence,  universal  intelligence, 
and  each  human  mind  is  a  part  of  that  cosmic  intelli- 
gence. Then  out  of  Mahat  comes  the  mind.  In  the 
Sdnkhya  Psychology  there  is  a  sharp  distinction  be- 
tween Mafias^  the  mind  function,  and  the  function  of 
the  Buddhi  intellect.  The  mind  function  is  simply  to 
collect  and  carry  impressions  and  present  them  to  the 
Buddhiy  the  individual  Mahat^  and  the  Buddhi  deter- 
mines upon  it.     So,  out  of  Mahat  comes  mind,  and  out 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  167 

of  mind  comes  fine  material,  and  this  fine  material 
combines  and  becomes  the  gross  material  outside  —  the 
external  universe.  The  claim  of  the  Sdnkhya  philoso- 
phy is  that  beginning  with  the  intellect,  and  coming 
down  to  a  block  of  stone,  all  has  come  out  of  the  same 
thing,  only  as  finer  or  grosser  states  of  existence. 
The  Buddhi  is  the  finest  state  of  existence  of  the  mate- 
rials, and  then  comes  Ahamkdra^  egoism,  and  next  to 
the  mind  comes  fine  material,  which  they  call  Tan- 
pidtras,  which  cannot  be  seen,  but  which  are  inferred. 
These  Tatwidtras  combine  and  become  grosser,  and 
finally  produce  this  universe.  The  finer  is  the  cause, 
and  the  grosser  is  the  effect.  It  begins  with  the 
Buddhi^  which  is  the  finest  material,  and  goes  on 
becoming  grosser  and  grosser,  until  it  becomes  this 
universe.  According  to  the  Sdnkhya  philosophy,  be- 
yond the  whole  of  nature  is  the  Puruia^  which  is  not 
material  at  all.  Puruia  is  not  at  all  similar  to  any- 
thing else,  either  Buddhi^  or  mind,  or  the  Tanmdtras^ 
or  the  gross  material;  it  is  not  akin  to  any  one  of 
these,  it  is  entirely  separate,  entirely  different  in  its 
nature,  and  from  this  they  argue  that  the  Puruia  must 
be  immortal,  because  it  is  not  the  result  of  combina- 
tion. That  which  is  not  the  result  of  combination 
cannot  die,  these  Puruias  or  Souls  are  infinite  in  num- 
ber. Now  we  shall  understand  the  Aphorism,  that  the 
States  of  the  qualities  are  defined,  undefined,  and  sign- 
less. By  the  defined  is  meant  the  gross  elements, 
which  we  can  sense.  By  the  undefined  is  meant  the 
?ery   fine   materials,  the   Tanmdtras^  which   cannot  be 


i68  rAja  yoga. 

sensed  by  ordinary  men.  If  you  practice  Yoga,  how- 
ever, says  Patanjali,  after  a  while  your  perceptions  will 
become  so  fine  that  you  will  actually  see  the  Tanmdtras. 
For  instance,  you  have  heard  how  every  man  has  a  cer- 
tain light  about  him;  every  living  being  is  emanating 
a  certain  light,  and  this,  he  says,  can  be  seen  by  the 
Yogi.  We  do  not  all  see  it,  but  we  are  all  throwing 
out  these  Tamndtras,  just  as  a  flower  is  continuously 
emanating  these  Tanmdtras^  which  enable  us  to  smell 
it.  Every  day  of  our  lives  we  are  throwing  out  a  mass 
of  good  or  evil,  and  everywhere  we  go  the  atmosphere 
is  full  of  these  materials,  and  that  is  how  there  came 
to  the  human  mind,  even  unconsciously,  the  idea  of 
building  temples  and  churches.  Why  should  man 
build  churches  in  which  to  worship  God  ?  Why  not 
worship  Him  anywhere  ?  Even  if  he  did  not  know  the 
reason,  man  found  that  that  place  where  people  wor- 
shipped God  became  full  of  good  Tanmdtras.  Every 
day  people  go  there,  and  the  more  they  go  the  holier 
they  get,  and  the  holier  that  place  becomes.  If  any 
man  who  has  not  much  Sattva  in  him  goes  there  the 
place  will  influence  him,  and  arouse  his  Sattva  quality. 
Here,  therefore,  is  the  significance  of  all  temples  and 
holy  places,  but  you  must  remember  that  their  holi- 
ness depends  on  holy  people  congregating  there.  The 
difficulty  with  mankind  is  that  they  forget  the  original 
meaning,  and  put  the  cart  before  the  horse.  It  was 
men  who  made  these  places  holy,  and  then  the  effect 
became  the  cause  and  made  men  holy.  If  the  wicked 
only  were  to  go  there  it  would  become  as  bad  as  any 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  169 

Other  place.  It  is  not  the  building,  but  the  people, 
that  make  a  church,  and  that  is  what  we  always  forget. 
That  is  why  sages  and  holy  persons,  who  have  so  much 
of  this  Sattva  quality,  are  emanating  so  much  of  it 
around  them,  and  exerting  a  tremendous  influence  day 
and  night  on  their  surroundings.  A  man  may  become 
so  pure  that  his  purity  will  become  tangible,  as  it 
were.  The  body  has  become  pure,  and  in  an  intensely 
physical  sense,  no  figurative  idea,  no  poetical  language, 
it  emanates  that  purity  wherever  it  goes.  Whosoever 
comes  in  contact  with  that  man  becomes  pure.  Next 
"  the  indicated  only  "  means  the  Buddhi^  the  intellect. 
"  The  indicated  only  "  is  the  first  manifestation  of 
nature;  from  it  all  other  manifestations  proceed.  The 
last  is  "  the  signless."  Here  there  seems  to  be  a 
great  fight  between  modern  science  and  all  religions. 
Every  religion  has  this  idea  that  this  universe  comes 
out  of  intelligence.  Only  some  religions  were  more 
philosophical,  and  used  scientific  language.  The  very 
theory  of  God,  taking  it  in  its  psychological  signifi- 
cance, and  apart  from  all  ideas  of  personal  God,  is  that 
intelligence  is  first  in  the  order  of  creation,  and  that 
out  of  intelligence  comes  what  we  call  gross  matter. 
Modern  philosophers  say  that  intelligence  is  the  last  to 
come.  They  say  that  unintelligent  things  slowly  evolve 
into  animals,  and  from  animals  slowly  evolve  into 
men.  They  claim  that  instead  of  everything  coming 
out  of  intelligence,  intelligence  is  itself  the  last  to 
come.  Both  the  religious  and  the  scientific  statement, 
though   seeming  directly  opposed   to  each   other,  are 


170  RAJA   YOGA. 

true.  Take  an  infinite  series,  A — B — A — B — A — B,  etc. 
The  question  is  which  is  first,  A  or  B.  If  you  take  the 
series  as  A — B,  you  will  say  that  A  is  first,  but  if  you 
take  it  as  B — A  you  will  say  that  B  is  first.  It  depends 
upon  the  way  we  are  looking  at  it.  Intelligence 
evolves,  and  becomes  the  gross  matter,  and  this  again 
involves  as  intelligence,  and  again  evolves  as  matter 
once  more.  The  Sdnkhyas^  and  all  religionists,  put 
intelligence  first,  and  the  series  becomes  intelligence 
then  matter,  intelligence  then  matter.  The  scientific 
man  puts  his  finger  on  matter,  and  says  matter  then 
intelligence,  matter  then  intelligence.  But  they  are 
both  indicating  the  same  chain.  Indian  philosophy, 
however,  goes  beyond  both  intelligence  and  matter, 
and  finds  a  Purusa^  or  Self,  which  is  beyond  all  intelli- 
gence, and  of  which  intelligence  is  but  the  borrowed 
light. 

20.  The  seer  is  intelligence  only,  and  though  pure, 
sees  through  the  colouring  of  the  intellect. 

This  is  again  Sdnkhya  philosophy.  We  have  seen 
from  this  philosophy  that  from  the  lowest  form  up  to 
intelligence  all  is  nature,  but  beyond  nature  are 
Puruias  (souls),  and  these  have  no  qualities.  Then 
how  does  the  soul  appear  to  be  happy  or  unhappy  ? 
By  reflection.  Just  as  if  a  piece  of  pure  crystal  be  put 
on  a  table  and  a  red  flower  be  put  near  it,  the  crystal 
appears  to  be  red,  so  all  these  appearances  of  happiness 
or  unhappiness  are  but  reflections;  the  soul  itself  has 
no   sort    of   colouring.     The    soul    is    separate    from 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I/I 

nature;  nature  is  one  thing,  soul  anotner,  eternally 
separate.  The  Sdnkhyas  say  that  intelligence  is  a 
compound,  that  it  grows  and  wanes,  that  it  changes, 
just  as  the  body  changes,  and  that  its  nature  is  nearly 
the  same  as  that  of  the  body.  As  a  finger-nail  is  to 
the  body,  so  is  body  to  intelligence.  The  nail  is  a 
part  of  the  body,  but  it  can  be  pared  off  hundreds  of 
times,  and  the  body  will  still  last.  Similarly,  the 
intelligence  lasts  a^ons,  while  this  body  can  be  pared 
off,  thrown  off.  Yet  intelligence  cannot  be  immortal, 
because  it  changes  —  growing  and  waning.  Anything 
that  changes  cannot  be  immortal.  Certainly  intelli- 
gence is  manufactured,  and  that  very  fact  shows  us  that 
there  must  be  something  beyond  that,  because  it  can- 
not be  free.  Everything  connected  with  matter  is  in 
nature,  and  therefore  bound  for  ever.  Who  is  free  ? 
That  free  one  must  certainly  be  beyond  cause  and 
effect.  If  you  say  that  the  idea  of  freedom  is  a  delu- 
sion, I  will  say  that  the  idea  of  bondage  is  also  a  delu- 
sion. Two  facts  come  into  our  consciousness,  and 
stand  or  fall  by  each  other.  One  is  that  we  are  bound. 
If  we  want  to  go  through  a  wall,  and  our  head  bumps 
against  that  wall,  we  are  limited  by  that  wall.  At  the 
same  time  we  find  will,  and  think  we  can  direct  our  will 
everywhere.  At  every  step  these  contradictory  ideas 
are  coming  to  us.  We  have  to  believe  that  we  are 
free,  yet  at  every  moment  we  find  we  are  not  free.  If 
one  idea  is  a  delusion,  the  other  is  also  a  delusion,  and 
if  one  is  true,  the  other  also  is  true,  because  both  stand 
upon  the  same  basis  —  consciousness.     The  Kc^/ says 


1/2  RAJA    YOGA. 

both  are  true;  that  we  are  bound  so  far  as  intelligence 
goes,  that  we  are  free  as  far  as  the  soul  is  concerned. 
It  is  the  real  nature  of  man,  the  Soul,  the  Puruia^ 
which  is  beyond  all  law  of  causation.  Its  freedom  is 
percolating  through  layers  and  layers  of  matter,  in 
various  forms  of  intelligence,  and  mind,  and  all  these 
things.  It  is  its  light  which  is  shining  through  all. 
Intelligence  has  no  light  of  its  own.  Each  organ  has  a 
particular  centre  in  the  brain;  it  is  not  that  all  the 
organs  have  one  centre;  each  organ  is  separate.  Why 
do  all  these  perceptions  harmonize,  and  where  do  they 
get  their  unity  ?  If  it  were  in  the  brain  there  would 
be  one  centre  only  for  the  eyes,  the  nose,  the  ears, 
while  we  know  for  certain  that  there  are  different  cen- 
tres for  each.  But  a  man  can  see  and  hear  at  the 
same  time,  so  a  unity  must  be  back  of  intelligence. 
Intelligence  is  eternally  connected  with  the  brain,  but 
behind  even  intelligence  stands  the  Furuia,  the  unit, 
where  all  these  different  sensations  and  perceptions 
join  and  become  one.  Soul  itself  is  the  centre  where 
all  the  different  organs  converge  and  become  unified, 
and  that  Soul  is  free,  and  it  is  its  freedom  that  tells 
you  every  moment  that  you  are  free.  But  you  mis- 
take, and  mingle  that  freedom  every  moment  with 
intelligence  and  mind.  You  try  to  attribute  that  free- 
dom to  the  intelligence,  and  immediately  find  that 
intelligence  is  not  free;  you  attribute  that  freedom  to 
the  body,  and  immediately  nature  tells  you  that  you 
are  again  mistaken.  That  is  why  there  is  this  mingled 
sense  of  freedom  and  bondage  at  the  sane  time.     The 


YOGA   APHORISMS*  ^73 

Yogi  analyses  both  what  is  free  and  what  is  bound,  and 
his  ignorance  vanishes.  He  finds  that  the  Puruia  is 
free,  is  the  essence  of  that  knowledge  which,  coming 
through  the  Buddhi,  becomes  intelligence,  and,  as 
such,  is  bound. 

21.  The  nature  of  the  experienced  is  for  him. 

Nature  has  no  light  of  its  own.  As  long  as  the 
Puruia  is  present  in  it,  it  appears  light,  but  the  light 
is  borrowed;  just  as  the  moon's  light  is  reflected.  All 
the  manifestations  of  nature  are  caused  by  this  nature 
itself,  according  to  the  Yogis;  but  nature  has  no  pur- 
pose in  view,  except  to  free  the  Purusa. 

22.  Though  destroyed  for  him  whose  goal  has  been 

gained,  yet  is  not  destroyed,  being  common  to 
others. 

The  whole  idea  of  this  nature  is  to  make  the  Soul 
know  that  it  is  entirely  separate  from  nature,  and 
when  the  Soul  knows  this,  nature  has  no  more  attrac- 
tions for  it.  But  the  whole  of  nature  vanishes  only  for 
that  man  who  has  become  free.  There  will  always 
remain  an  infinite  number  of  others,  for  whom  nature 
will  go  on  working. 

23.  Junction  is  the  cause  of  the  realisation  of  the 

nature  of  both  the  powers,  the   experienced 

and  its  Lord. 

According  to   this  aphorism,  when  this  Soul  comes 

into  conjunction  with   nature,  both   the  power  of  the 


1/4  RAJA   YOGA. 

Soul  and  the  power  of  nature  become  manifest  in  this 
conjunction,  and  all  these  manifestations  are  thrown 
out.  Ignorance  is  the  cause  of  this  conjunction.  We 
see  every  day  that  the  cause  of  our  pain  or  pleasure 
is  always  our  joining  ourselves  with  the  body.  If  I 
were  perfectly  certain  that  I  am  not  this  body,  I  should 
take  no  notice  of  heat  and  cold,  or  anything  of  the 
kind.  This  body  is  a  combination.  It  is  only  a  fiction 
to  say  that  I  have  one  body,  you  another,  and  the  sun 
another.  The  whole  universe  is  one  ocean  of  matter, 
and  you  are  the  name  of  a  little  particle,  and  I  of 
another,  and  the  sun  of  another.  We  know  that  this 
matter  is  continuously  changing,  what  is  forming  the 
sun  one  day,  the  next  day  may  form  the  matter  of  our 
bodies. 

24.  Ignorance  is  its  cause. 

Through  ignorance  we  have  joined  ourselves  with  a 
particular  body,  and  thus  opened  ourselves  to  misery. 
This  idea  of  body  is  a  simple  superstition.  It  is  super- 
stition that  makes  us  happy  or  unhappy.  It  is  super- 
stition caused  by  ignorance  that  makes  us  feel  heat 
and  cold,  pain  and  pleasure.  It  is  our  business  to  rise 
above  this  superstition,  and  the  Vo^^t  shows  us  how  we 
can  do  this.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that,  under 
certain  mental  conditions,  a  man  may  be  burned,  yet, 
while  that  condition  lasts,  he  will  feel  no  pain.  The 
difficulty  is  that  this  sudden  upheaval  of  the  mind 
comes  like  a  whirlwind  one  minute,  and  goes  away  the 
next.     If^  however,  we  attain  it  scientifically,  through 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I75 

Yoga,  we  shall   permanently  attain   to  that  separation 
of  Self  from  the  body. 

25.  There  being  absence  of  that  (ignorance)  there 
is  absence  of  junction,  which  is  the  thing-to- 
be-avoided  ;  that  is  the  independence  of  the  seer. 

According  to  this  I'oga  philosophy  it  is  through 
ignorance  that  the  Soul  has  been  joined  with  nature 
and  the  idea  is  to  get  rid  of  nature's  control  over  us. 
That  is  the  goal  of  ail  religions.  Each  Soul  is  potenti- 
ally divine.  The  goal  is  to  manifest  this  Divinity 
within,  by  controlling  nature,  external  and  internal. 
Do  this  either  by  work,  or  worship,  or  psychic  control, 
or  philosophy,  by  one,  or  more,  or  all  of  these — and 
be  free.  This  is  the  whole  of  religion.  Doctrines,  or 
dogmas,  or  rituals,  or  books,  or  temples,  or  forms,  are 
but  secondary  details.  The  Yogi  tries  to  reach  this 
goal  through  psychic  control.  Until  we  can  free  our- 
selves from  nature  we  are  slaves;  as  she  dictates  so  we 
must  go.  The  Yogi  claims  that  he  who  controls  mind 
controls  matter  also.  The  internal  nature  is  much 
higher  than  the  external,  and  much  more  difficult  to 
grapple  with,  much  more  difficult  to  control;  therefore 
he  who  has  conquered  the  internal  nature  controls  the 
whole  universe;  it  becomes  his  servant.  /^dja  Yoga 
propounds  the  methods  of  gaining  this  control.  Higher 
forces  than  we  know  in  physical  nature  will  have  to  be 
subdued.  This  body  is  just  the  external  crust  of  the 
mind.  They  are  not  two  different  things;  they  are 
just   as  the  oyster  and   its  shell.     They  are  but  two 


176  RAJA   YOGA. 

aspects  of  one  thing;  the  internal  substance  of  the 
oyster  is  taking  up  matter  from  outside,  and  manu- 
facturing the  shell.  In  the  same  way  these  internal 
fine  forces  which  are  called  mind  take  up  gross  matter 
from  outside,  and  from  that  manufacture  this  external 
shell,  or  body.  If  then,  we  have  control  of  the  internal, 
it  is  very  easy  to  have  control  of  the  external.  Then 
again,  these  forces  are  not  different.  It  is  not  that 
some  forces  are  physical,  and  some  mental ;  the  physical 
forces  are  but  the  gross  manifestations  of  the  fine 
forces,  just  as  the  physical  world  is  but  the  gross  mani- 
festation of  the  fine  world. 

26.  The  means  of  destruction  of  ignorance  is  un- 
broken practice  of  discrimination. 

This  is  the  real  goal  of  practice  —  discrimination 
between  the  real  and  the  unreal,  knowing  that  the 
Furuia  is  not  nature,  that  it  is  neither  matter  nor  mind, 
and  that  because  it  is  not  nature,  it  cannot  possibly 
change.  It  is  only  nature  which  changes,  combining, 
and  recombining,  dissolving  continually.  When  through 
constant  practice  we  begin  to  discriminate,  ignorance 
will  vanish,  and  the  Puruia  will  begin  to  shine  in  its 
real  nature,  omniscient,  omnipotent,  omnipresent. 

27.  His    knowledge    is    of    the    sevenfold    highest 

ground. 

When  this  knowledge  comes,  it  will  come,  as  it  were, 
*n  seven  grades,  one  after  the  other,  and  when  one  of 


YOGA    APHORISMS.  177 

these   has  begun   we  may  know   that  we  are   getting 
knowledge.     The  first  to  appear  will  be  that  we  have 
known  what  is  to  be  known.     The  mind  will  cease  to 
be  dissatisfied.     While  we  are  aware  of  thirsting  after 
knowledge   we  begin  to  seek  here  and  there,  wherever 
we  think  we  can  get  some  truth,  and,  failing  to  find  it 
we  become  dissatisfied  and  seek  in  a  fresh  direction. 
All   search   is  vain,   until   we   begin    to  perceive  that 
knowledge  is  within  ourselves,  that  no  one  can  help  us, 
that  we  must  help  ourselves.     When  we  begin  to  prac- 
tise the  power  of  discrimination,  the  first  sign  that  we 
are  getting  near  truth  will  be  that  that  dissatisfied  state 
will  vanish.     We  shall  feel  quite   sure   that  we   have 
found  the  truth,  and  that  it  cannot  be  anything  else 
but  the  truth.     Then  we  may  know  that  the  sun  is 
rising,  that  the  morning  is  breaking  for  us,  and,  taking 
courage,  we  must  persevere  until  the  goal  is  reached. 
The  second  grade  will  be  that  all  pains  will  be  gone. 
It  will  be  impossible  for  anything  in  the  universe,  phy- 
sical, mental,  or  spiritual,  to  give  us  pain.     The  third 
will  be  that  we  shall  get  full  knowledge,  that  omnisci- 
ence will  be  ours.     Next  will  come  what  is  called  free- 
dom of  the   Chitta.      We   shall   realise   that  all    these 
difficulties  and  struggles  have  fallen  off  from  us.     All 
these  vacillations  of  the  mind,  when  the  mind  cannot 
be  controlled,  have  fallen  down,  just  as  a  stone  rolls 
from  the  mountain  top  into  the  valley  and  never  comes 
up  again.     The  next  will  be  that  this  Chitta  itself  will 
realise  that  it  melts  away  into  its  causes  whenever  we 
so  desire.     Lastly  we  shall  find  that  we  are  established 

19 


178  rAja  yoga. 

in  our  Self,  that  we  have  been  alone  throughout  the 
universe,  neither  body  nor  mind  was  ever  connected 
with  us,  much  less  joined  to  us.  They  were  working 
their  own  way,  and  we,  through  ignorance,  joined 
ourselves  to  them.  But  we  have  been  alone,  omnipo- 
tent, omnipresent,  ever  blessed;  our  own  Self  was  so 
pure  and  perfect  that  we  required  none  else.  We 
required  none  else  to  make  us  happy,  for  we  are  hap- 
piness itself.  We  shall  find  that  this  knowledge  does 
not  depend  on  anything  else;  throughout  the  universe 
there  can  be  nothing  that  will  not  become  effulgent 
before  our  knowledge.  This  will  be  the  last  state,  and 
the  Yogi  will  become  peaceful  and  calm,  never  to  feel 
any  more  pain,  never  to  be  again  deluded,  never  to 
touch  misery.  He  knows  he  is  ever  blessed,  ever  per- 
fect, almighty. 

28.  Bj  the  practice  of  the  different  parts  of  Yoga 
the  impurities  being  destroyed  knowledge  be- 
comes effulgent,  up  to  discrimination. 

Now  comes  the  practical  knowledge.  What  we  have 
just  been  speakmg  about  is  much  higher.  It  is  away 
above  our  heads,  but  it  is  the  ideal.  It  is  first  neces- 
sary to  obtain  physical  and  mental  control.  Then  the 
realisation  will  become  steady  in  that  ideal.  The 
ideal  being  known,  what  remains  is  to  practise  the 
method  of  reaching  it. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  179 

A 

29.  Yama,  Niyama,  Asana,  Pr&n&y&ma,  Praty&hara, 
Dh&raii&,  Dhyana,  Samadhi,  are  the  limbs  of 
Yoga.  * 

30.  Non-killing,  truthfulness,   non-stealing,  contin- 

ence, and  non-receiving,  are  called  Yama. 

A  man  who  wants  to  be  a  perfect  Vogt  must  give  up 
the  sex  idea.  The  Soul  has  no  sex;  why  should  it 
degrade  itself  with  sex  ideas?  Later  on  we  shall  under- 
stand better  why  these  ideas  must  be  given  up.  Re- 
ceiving is  just  as  bad  as  stealing;  receiving  gifts  from 
others.  Whoever  receives  gifts,  his  mind  is  acted  on 
by  the  mind  of  the  giver,  so  that  the  man  who  receives 
gifts  becomes  degenerated.  Receiving  gifts  destroys 
the  independence  of  the  mind,  and  makes  us  mere 
slaves.     Therefore,  receive  nothing. 

31.  These,  unbroken  by   time,  place,  purpose,  and 

caste,  are  (universal)  great  vows. 

These  practices,  non-killing,  non-stealing,  chastity, 
and  non-receiving,  are  to  be  practised  by  every  man, 
woman  and  child,  by  every  soul,  irrespective  of  nation, 
country  or  position. 

32.  Internal  and  external  purification,  contentment, 

mortification,  study,  and  worship  of  God,  are 
the  Niyamas. 

External  purification  is  keeping  the  body  pure;  a 
dirty  man  will  never  be  a  Vogi.  There  must  be  internal 
purification  also      That  is  obtained  by  the  first-named 


l80  RAJA  YOGA. 

virtues.  Of  course  internal  purity  is  of  greater  value 
than  external,  but  both  are  necessary,  and  external 
purity,  without  internal,  is  of  no  good. 

33.  To   obstruct   thoughts   which   are   inimical    to 

Yoga  contrary  thoughts  will  be  brought. 

That  is  the  way  to  practise  all  these  virtues  that 
have  been  stated,  by  holding  thoughts  of  an  opposite 
character  in  the  mind.  When  the  idea  of  stealing 
comes,  non-stealing  should  be  thought  of.  When  the 
idea  of  receiving  gifts  comes,  replace  it  by  a  contrary 
thought. 

34.  The  obstructions  to  Yoga  are  killing,  etc.,  whether 

committed,  caused,  or  approved ;  either  through 
avarice,  or  anger,  or  ignorance ;  whether  slight, 
middling,  or  great,  and  result  in  innumerable 
ignorances  and  miseries.  This  is  (the  method 
of)  thinking  the  contrary. 

If  I  tell  a  lie,  or  cause  another  to  tell  a  lie,  or  approve 
of  another  doing  so,  it  is  equally  sinful.  If  it  is  a  very 
mild  lie,  still  it  is  a  lie.  Every  vicious  thought  will 
rebound,  every  thought  of  hatred  which  you  may  have 
thought,  in  a  cave  even,  is  stored  up,  and  will  one  day 
come  back  to  you  with  tremendous  power  in  the  form 
of  some  misery  here.  If  you  project  all  sorts  of  hatred 
and  jealousy,  they  will  rebound  on  you  with  compound 
interest.  No  power  can  avert  them ;  when  once  you  have 
put  them  in  motion  you  will  have  to  bear  them.  Remem- 
bering this,  will  prevent  you  from  doing  wicked  things. 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  l8l 

35.  Non-killing  being  established,  in  his  presence 

all  enmities  cease  (in  others). 

If  a  man  gets  the  ideal  of  non-injuring  others,  before 
him  even  animals  which  are  by  their  nature  ferocious 
will  become  peaceful.  The  tiger  and  the  lamb  will 
play  together  before  that  Yogi  and  will  not  hurt  each 
other.  When  you  have  come  to  that  state,  then  alone 
you  will  understand  that  you  have  become  firmly 
established  in  non-injuring. 

36.  By  the  establishment  of  truthfulness  the  Yogi 

gets  the  power  of  attaining  for  himself  and 
others  the  fruits  of  work  without  the  works. 

When  this  power  of  truth  will  be  established  with 
you,  then  even  in  dream  you  will  never  tell  an  untruth, 
in  thought,  word  or  deed;  whatever  you  say  will  be 
truth.  You  may  say  to  a  man  "  Be  blessed,"  and  that 
man  will  be  blessed.  If  a  man  is  diseased,  and  you  say 
to  him,  "  Be  thou  cured,"  he  will  be  cured  immediately. 

37.  By  the  establishment  of  non-stealing  all  wealth 

comes  to  the  Yogi. 

The  more  you  fly  from  nature  the  more  she  follows 
you,  and  if  you  do  not  care  for  her  at  all  she  becomes 
your  slave. 

38.  By  the  establishment  of  continence  energy  is 

gained. 

The  chaste  brain  has  tremendous  energy,  gigantic 
will    power,    without    that    there    can    be    no    mental 


1 82  rAja  yoga. 

strength.  All  men  of  gigantic  brains  are  very  conti- 
nent. It  gives  wonderful  control  over  mankind. 
Leaders  of  men  have  been  very  continent,  and  this  is 
what  gave  them  power.  Therefore  the  Yogf  must  be 
continent. 

39.  When  he  is  fixed  in  non-receiving  he  gets  the 

memory  of  past  life. 

When  the  Yogi  does  not  receive  presents  from  others 
he  does  not  become  beholden  to  others,  but  becomes 
independent  and  free,  and  his  mind  becomes  pure, 
because  with  every  gift  he  receives  all  the  evils  of  the 
giver,  and  they  come  and  lay  coating  after  coating  on 
his  mind,  until  it  is  hidden  under  all  sorts  of  coverings 
of  evil.  If  he  does  not  receive  the  mind  becomes  pure, 
and  the  first  thing  it  gets  is  memory  of  past  life.  Then 
alone  the  Yogi  becomes  perfectly  fixed  in  his  ideal, 
because  he  sees  that  he  has  been  coming  and  going  so 
many  times,  and  he  becomes  determined  that  this  time 
he  will  be  free,  that  he  will  no  more  come  and  go,  and 
be  the  slave  of  Nature. 

40.  Internal  and  external  cleanliness  being  estab- 

lished, arises  disgust  for  one's  own  body,  and 
non-intercourse  with  other  bodies. 

When  there  is  real  purification  of  the  body,  external 
and  internal,  there  arises  neglect  of  the  body,  and  all  this 
idea  of  keeping  it  nice  will  vanish.  What  others  call 
the  most  beautiful  face  to  the  Yogt  will  appear  to  be 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  1 83 

an  animal's  face,  if  there  is  not  intelligence  behind  it. 
What  the  world  will  call  a  very  common  face  he  will 
call  heavenly,  if  that  spirit  shines  behind  it.  This 
thirst  after  body  is  the  great  bane  of  human  life.  So, 
when  this  purity  is  established,  the  first  sign  will  be  that 
you  do  not  care  to  think  you  are  a  body.  It  is  only 
when  purity  comes  that  we  get  rid  of  the  body  idea. 

41.  There  also  arises  purification  of  the  Sattva, 
cheerfulness  of  the  mind,  concentration,  con- 
quest of  the  organs,  and  fitness  for  the  realisa- 
tion of  the  Self. 

By  this  practice  the  Sattva  material  will  prevail,  and 
the  mind  will  become  concentrated  and  cheerful. 
The  first  sign  that  you  are  becoming  religious  is  that 
you  are  becoming  cheerful.  When  a  man  is  gloomy 
that  may  be  dyspepsia,  but  it  is  not  religion.  A 
pleasurable  feeling  is  the  nature  of  the  Sattva.  Every- 
thing is  pleasurable  to  the  Sdttoika  man,  and  when  this 
comes,  know  that  you  are  progressing  in  Yoga.  All 
pain  is  caused  by  Tamas^  so  you  must  get  rid  of  that; 
moroseness  is  one  of  the  results  of  Tamas.  The  strong, 
the  well-knit,  the  young,  the  healthy,  the  daring  alone 
are  fit  to  be  Yogis.  To  the  Yogi  everything  is  bliss, 
every  human  face  that  he  sees  brings  cheerfulness  to 
him.  That  is  the  sign  of  a  virtuous  man.  Misery  is 
casued  by  sin,  and  by  no  other  cause.  What  business 
have  you  with  clouded  faces;  it  is  terrible.  If  you 
have  a  clouded  face  do  not  go  out  that  day,  shut  your- 
self up  in  your  room.     What  right  have  you  to  carry 


1 84  RAJA   YOGA. 

this  disease  out  into  the  world?  When  your  mind  has 
become  controlled  you  will  have  control  over  the  whole 
body;  instead  of  being  a  slave  to  this  machine,  the 
machine  will  be  your  slave.  Instead  of  this  machine 
being  able  to  drag  the  soul  dov/n  it  will  be  its  greatest 
helpmate. 

42.  From  contentment  comes  superlative  happiness. 

43.  The  result  of  mortification  is  bringing  powers 

to  the  organs  and  the  body,  by  destroying  the 
impurity. 

The  results  of  mortification  are  seen  immediately 
sometimes  by  heightened  powers  of  vision,  and  so  on, 
hearing  things  at  a  distance,  etc. 

44.  By  repetition  of  the  mantram  comes  the  realisa- 

tion of  the  intended  deity. 

The  higher  the  beings  that  you  want  to  get  the  harder 
is  the  practice. 

45.  By  sacrificing  all  to  Iswara  comes  Samadhi 

By  resignation  to  the  Lord,  Samadhi  becomes  perfect. 

46.  Posture  is  that  which  is  firm  and  pleasant. 

Now  comes  Asana,  posture.  Until  you  can  get  a  firm 
seat  you  cannot  practise  the  breathing  and  other  exer- 
cises. The  seat  being  firm  means  that  you  do  not  feel 
the  body  at  all;  then  alone  it  has  become  firm.  But, 
in  the  ordinary  way,  you  will  find  that  as  soon  as  you 


\OGa   AfHORISMS.  185 

Sit  ioi  'd  Jew  iriijiutes  all  sorts  of  disturbances  come  into 
the  body;  but  when  you  have  got  beyond  the  idea  of 
a  concrete  body  you  will  lose  all  sense  of  the  body. 
You  will  feel  neither  pleasure  nor  pain.  And  when 
you  take  your  body  up  again  it  will  feel  so  rested;  it  is 
the  only  perfect  rest  that  you  can  give  to  the  body. 
When  you  have  succeeded  in  conquering  the  body  and 
keeping  it  firm,  your  practice  will  remain  firm,  but 
while  you  are  disturbed  by  the  body  your  nerves  become 
disturbed,  and  you  cannot  concentrate  the  mind.  We 
can  make  the  seat  firm  by  thinking  of  the  infinite.  We 
cannot  think  of  the  Absolute  Infinite,  but  we  can  think 
of  the  infinite  sky. 

47.  By  slight  effort  and  meditating  on  the  unlimited 

(posture  becomes  firm  and  pleasant). 

Light  and  darkness,  pleasure  and  pain,  will  not  then 
disturb  you. 

48.  Seat  being  conq[uered,  the  dualities  do  not  ob- 

struct. 

The  dualties  are  good  and  bad,  heat  and  cold,  and 
all  the  pairs  of  opposites. 

49.  Controlling  the  motion  of  the  exhalation  and  the 

inhalation  follows  after  this. 

When  the  posture  has  been  conquered,  then  this 
motion  is  to  be  broken  and  controlled,  and  thus  we  come 
to  Prdndydma;  the  controlling  of  the  vital  forces  of 


1 86  RAJA   YOGA. 

the  body.  Prdna  is  not  breath,  though  it  is  usually 
so  translated.  It  is  the  sum-total  of  the  cosmic  energy. 
It  is  the  energy  that  is  in  each  body,  and  its  most 
apparent  manifestation  is  the  motion  of  the  lungs. 
This  motion  is  caused  by  Prdna  drawing  in  the  breath, 
and  is  what  we  seek  to  control  in  Prdndydma.  We 
begin  by  controlling  the  breath,  as  the  easiest  way  of 
getting  control  of  the  Prdna. 

50.  Its  modifications  are  either  external  or  internal, 
or  motionless,  regulated  by  place,  time,  and 
number,  either  long  or  short. 

The  three  sorts  of  motion  of  this  Prdndydma  are, 
one  by  which  we  draw  the  breath  in,  another  by  which 
we  throw  it  out,  and  the  third  action  is  when  the  breath 
is  held  in  the  lungs,  or  stopped  from  entering  the  lungs. 
These,  again,  are  varied  by  place  and  time.  By  place 
is  meant  that  the  Prdna  is  held  to  some  particular  part 
of  the  body.  By  time  is  meant  how  long  the  Prdna 
should  be  confined  to  a  certain  place,  and  so  we  are 
told  how  many  seconds  to  keep  one  motion,  and  how 
many  seconds  to  keep  another.  The  result  of  this 
Prdndydma  is    Udghdta^  awakening  the  Kundalini. 

61.  The  fourth  is  restraining  the  Prana  by  directing 
it  either  to  the  external  or  internal  objects. 

This  is  the  fourth  sort  of  Prdndydma.  Prdna  can  be 
directed  either  inside  or  outside. 


YOGA    APHORISMS.  187 

52.  From   that,  the   covering  to  the   light   of  the 

Chitta  is  attenuated. 

The  Chitta  has,  by  its  own  nature,  all  knowledge. 
It  is  made  of  Sattna  particles,  but  is  covered  by  Rajas 
and  Tamas  particles,  and  by  Prdndydnia  this  coverng 
is  removed. 

53.  The  mind  hecomes  fit  for  Dharan&. 

After  this  covering  has  been  removed  we  are  able 
to  concentrate  the  mind. 

54.  The  drawing  in  of  the  organs  is  hy  their  giving 

up  their  own  objects  and  taking  the  form  of  the 
mind-stuff. 

These  organs  are  separate  states  of  the  mind-stuff. 
I  see  a  book;  the  form  is  not  in  the  book,  it  is  in  the 
mind.  Something  is  outside  which  calls  that  form  up. 
The  real  form  is  in  the  Chitta.  These  organs  are 
identifying  themselves  with,  and  taking  the  forms  of 
whatever  comes  to  them.  If  you  can  restrain  the 
mind-stuff  from  taking  these  forms  the  mind  will  remain 
calm.  This  is  called  Pratydhdra.  Thence  arises 
supreme  control  of  the  organs. 

When  the  Yogi  has  succeeded  in  preventing  the 
organs  from  taking  the  forms  of  external  objects,  and 
in  making  them  remain  one  with  the  mind-stuff,  then 
comes  perfect  control  of  the  organs,  and  when  the 
organs  are  perfectly  under  control,  every  muscle  and 
nerve  will  be  under  control,   because  the  organs  arc 


1 88  rAja  yoga. 

the  centres  of  all  the  sensations,  and  of  all  actions. 
These  organs  are  divided  into  organs  of  work  and 
organs  of  sensation.  When  the  organs  are  controlled, 
the  F^^f  can  control  all  feeling  and  doing;  the  whole 
of  the  body  will  be  under  his  control.  Then  alone 
one  begins  to  feel  joy  in  being  born;  then  one  can 
truthfully  say,  "  Blessed  am  I  that  I  was  born."  When 
that  control  of  the  organs  is  obtained,  we  feel  how 
wonderful  this  body  really  is. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    CHAPTER    OF    POWERS. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  chapter  whicn  >«  Jrhed 
the  Chapter  of  Powers. 

1.  Dharan^  is  holding  the  mind  on  to  some  particular 

object. 

Dhdrand  (concentration)  is  when  the  mind  holds  on 
to  some  object,  either  in  the  body,  or  outside  the  body, 
and  keeps  itself  in  that  state. 

2.  An  unbroken  flow  of  knowledge  in  that  object  is 

Dhyana. 

The  mind  tries  to  think  of  one  object,  to  hold  itself 
to  one  particular  spot,  as  the  top  of  the  head,  the 
heart,  etc.,  and  if  the  mind  succeeds  in  receiving  the 
sensations  only  through  that  part  of  the  body,  and 
through  no  other  part,  that  would  be  Dhdrand^  and 
when  the  mind  succeeds  in  keeping  itself  in  that  state 
for  some  time  it  is  called  Dhydna  (meditation). 

3.  When  that,  giving  up  all  forms,  reflects  only  the 

meaning,  it  is  Samadhi. 

That  is,  when  in  meditation  all  forms  are  given  up. 
Suppose  I  were  meditating  on  a  book,  and  that  I  have 

[189] 


190  RAJA   YOGA. 

gradually  succeeded  in  concentrating  the  mind  on  it, 
and  perceiving  only  the  internal  sensations,  the  mean- 
ing, unexpressed  in  any  form,  that  state  of  Dhydna  is 
called  Samddhi. 

4.  (These)  three  (when  practised)  in  regard  to  one 

object  isSamyama. 

When  a  man  can  direct  his  mind  to  any  particular 
object  and  fix  it  there,  and  then  keep  it  there  for  a 
longtime,  separating  the  object  from  the  internal  part, 
this  is  Samyama;  or  Dhdrand^  Dhydna^  and  Samddhi^ 
one  following  the  other,  and  making  one.  The  form 
of  the  thing  has  vanished,  and  only  its  meaning 
remains  in  the  mind. 

5.  By  the  conquest  of  that  comes  light  of  knowledge. 

When  one  has  succeeded  in  making  this  Samyama^  all 
powers  come  under  his  control.  This  is  the  great 
instrument  of  the  Yogi.  The  objects  of  knowledge  are 
infinite,  and  they  are  divided  into  the  gross,  grosser, 
grossest,  and  the  fine,  finer,  finest,  and  so  on.  This 
Samyama  should  be  first  applied  to  gross  things,  and 
when  you  begin  to  get  knowledge  of  the  gross,  slowly, 
by  stages,  it  should  be  brought  to  finer  things. 

6.  That  shonld  be  employed  in  stages. 

This  is  a  note  of  warning  not  to  attempt  to  go  too 
fast. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I9I 

7.  These  three  are  nearer  than  those  that  precede. 

Before  these  we  had  the  Frdndydma,  the  Asana,  the 
Yama  and  Niyavm;  these  are  external  parts  of  these 
three  —  DMrand,  Dhydna_  and  Samddhi.  Yet  these 
latter  even  are  external  to  the  seedless  Samddhi. 
When  a  man  has  attained  to  them  he  may  attain  to 
omniscience  and  omnipotence,  but  that  would  not  be 
salvation.  These  three  would  not  make  the  mind 
Nifvikalpa,  changeless,  but  would  leave  the  seeds  for 
getting  bodies  again,  only  when  the  seeds  are,  as  the 
Yogt  says,  "  fried,"  do  they  lose  the  possibility  of  pro- 
ducing further  plants.  These  powers  cannot  fry  the 
seed. 

8.  But   even    they    are    external    to    the    seedless 

(Samadhi), 

Compared  with  that  seedless  Samddhi,  therefore, 
even  these  are  external.  We  have  not  yet  reached  the 
real  Sa?nddhi_  the  highest,  but  to  a  lower  stage,  in 
which  this  universe  still  exists  as  we  see  it,  and  in 
which  are  all  these  powers. 

9.  By  the  suppression  of  the  disturbed  modifications 

of  the  mind,  and  by  the  rise  of  modifications 
of  control,  the  mind  is  said  to  attain  the  con- 
trolling modifications  —  following  the  control- 
ling powers  of  the  mind. 

That  is  to  say,  in  this  first  state  of  Samddhi,  the 
modifications   of  the  mind   have  been  controlled,  but 


192  RAJA   YOGA. 

not  perfectly,  because  if  they  were,  there  would  be  no 
modifications.  If  there  is  a  modification  which  impels 
the  mind  to  rush  out  through  the  senses,  and  the  Vogi 
tries  to  control  it,  that  very  control  itself  will  be  a 
modification.  One  wave  will  be  checked  by  another 
wave,  so  it  will  not  be  real  Samddhi^  when  all  the  waves 
have  subsided,  as  control  itself  will  be  a  wave.  Yet 
this  lower  Satnddhi  is  very  much  nearer  to  the  higher 
Samddhi  than  when  the  mind  comes  bubbling  out. 

10.  Its  flow  becomes  steady  by  habit. 

The  flow  of  this  continuous  control  of  the  mind  be- 
comes steady  when  practised  day  after  day  and  the 
mind  obtains  the  faculty  of  constant  concentration. 

11.  Taking  in  all  sorts  of  objects,  and  concentrating 

npon  one  object,  these  two  powers  being  de- 
stroyed and  manifested  respectively,  the  Chitta 
gets  the  modification  called  Samadhi. 

The  mind  is  taking  up  various  objects,  running  into 
all  sorts  of  things  and  then  there  is  a  higher  state  of 
the  mind,  when  it  takes  up  one  object  and  excludes 
all  others.     Samddhi  is  the  result  of  that. 

12.  The  one-pointedness  of  the  Chitta  is  when  it  grasps 

in  one,  the  past  and  present. 

How  are  we  to  know  that  the  mind  has  become  con- 
centrated ?  Because  time  will  vanish.  The  more 
time  vanishes  the  more  concentrated  we  are.     In  com- 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I93 

mon  life  we  see  that  when  we  are  interested  in  a  book 
we  do  not  note  the  time  at  all,  and  when  we  leave  the 
book  we  are  often  surprised  to  find  how  many  hours 
have  passed.  All  time  will  have  the  tendency  to  come 
and  stand  in  the  one  present.  So  the  definition  is 
given,  when  the  past  and  present  come  and  stand  in 
one,  the  more  concentrated  the  mind. 

13.  By  this  is  explained  the  threefold  transformationi 

of  form,  time  and  state,  in  fine  or  gross  matter, 
and  in  the  organs. 

By  this  the  threefold  changes  in  the  mind-stuff  as 
to  form,  time,  and  state,  are  explained.  The  mind-stuff 
is  changing  into  Vrittis^  this  is  change  as  to  form. 
To  be  able  to  hold  the  changes  to  the  present  time  is 
change  as  to  time.  To  be  able  to  make  the  mind-stuff 
go  to  the  past  forms  giving  up  the  present  even,  is 
change  as  to  state.  The  concentrations  taught  in  the 
preceding  aphorisms  were  to  give  the  Yogi  a  voluntary 
control  over  the  transformations  of  his  mind-stuff 
which  alone  will  enable  him  to  make  the  Satnyama  be- 
fore named. 

14.  That  which  is  acted  upon  by  transformations, 

either  past,  present  or  yet  to  be  manifested,  ii 
the  qualified. 

That  is  to  say,  the  qualified  is  the  substance  which  is 
being  acted  upon  by  time  and   by   the  Samskdras^  and 
getting  changed  and  being  manifested  all  the  time. 
13 


194  RAJA   YOGA. 

15.  The  fnccession  of  changes  is  the  cause  of  manifola 

evolution. 

16.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  three  sorts  of  changes 

comes  the  knowledge  of  past  and  future. 

We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  first  definition  of  Sam- 
yama. When  the  mind  has  attained  to  that  state  when 
it  identifies  itself  with  the  internal  impression  of  the 
object,  leaving  the  external,  and  when,  by  long  practice, 
that  is  retained  by  the  mind,  and  the  mind  can  get  into 
that  state  in  a  moment,  that  is  Samyama.  If  a  man  in 
that  state  wants  to  know  the  past  and  future  he  has  to 
make  a  Samyama  on  the  changes  in  the  Samskdras. 
Some  are  working  now  at  present,  some  have  worked 
out,  and  some  are  waiting  to  work;  so  by  making  a 
Samyama  on  these  he  knows  the  past  and  future. 

17.  By  making  Samyama  on  word,   meaning,  and 

knowledge,    which    are    ordinarily    confused, 
comes  the  knowledge  of  all  animal  sounds. 

The  word  represents  the  external  cause,  the  meaning 
represents  the  internal  vibration  that  travels  to  the 
brain  through  the  channels  of  the  Indriyas^  conveying 
the  external  impression  to  the  mind,  and  knowledge 
represents  the  reaction  of  the  mind,  with  which  comes 
perception.  These  three  confused,  make  our  sense 
objects.  Suppose  I  hear  a  word;  there  is  first  the 
external  vibration,  next  the  internal  sensation  carried 
to  the  mind  by  the  organ  of  hearing,  then  the  mind 
reacts,  and   I  know  the  word.     The  word  I  know  is  a 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I95 

mixture  of  the  three,  vibration,  sensation,  and  reac- 
tion. Ordinarily  these  three  are  inseparable;  but  by 
practice  the  Yogt  can  separate  them.  When  a  man 
has  attained  to  this,  if  he  makes  a  Samyama  on  any 
sound,  he  understands  the  meaning  which  that  sound 
was  intended  to  express,  whether  it  was  made  by  man 
or  by  any  other  animal. 

18.  By  perceiving  the  impressions,  knowledge  of  past 

life. 

Each  experience  that  we  have  comes  in  the  form  of 
a  wave  in  the  Chitta,  and  this  subsides  and  becomes 
finer  and  finer,  but  is  never  lost.  It  remains  there  in 
minute  form,  and  if  we  can  bring  this  wave  up  again, 
it  becomes  memory.  So,  if  the  Yogt  can  make  a 
Samyama  on  these  past  impressions  in  the  mind,  he 
will  begin  to  remember  all  his  past  lives. 

19.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  signs  in  another's 

body  knowledge  of  that  mind  comes. 

Suppose  each  man  has  particular  signs  on  his  body, 
which  differentiate  him  from  others;  when  the  Yogi 
makes  a  Samyama  on  these  signs  peculiar  to  a  certain 
man  he  knows  the  nature  of  the  mind  of  that  person. 

20.  But  not  its  contents,  that  not  being  the  object  of 

the  Samyama, 

He  would  not  know  the  contents  of  the  mind  by 
making  a  Samyama  on  the  body.  There  would  be 
required  a  twofold  Samyama^  first  on  the  signs  in  the 


196  RAJA   YOGA. 

body,  and  then  on  the  mind  itself.  The  K?^/ would 
then  know  everything  that  is  in  that  mind,  past,  pres- 
ent, and  future. 

21.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  form  of  the  body  the 

power  of  perceiving  forms  being  obstructed,  the 
power  of  manifestation  in  the  eye  being  sepa- 
rated, the  Yogi's  body  becomes  unseen. 

A  Yogt  standing  in  the  midst  of  this  room  can  appa- 
rently vanish.  He  does  not  really  vanish,  but  he  will 
not  be  seen  by  anyone.  The  form  and  the  body  are, 
as  it  were,  separated.  You  must  remember  that  this 
can  only  be  done  when  the  Yogi  has  attained  to  that 
power  of  concentration  when  form  and  the  thing 
formed  have  been  separated.  Then  he  makes  a  Sam- 
yama on  that,  and  the  power  to  perceive  forms  is 
obstructed,  because  the  power  of  perceiving  forms 
comes  from  the  junction  of  form  and  the  thing  formed. 
By  this  the  disappearance  or  concealment  of  words 
which  are  being  spoken  is  also  explained. 

22.  Karma  is  of  two  kinds,  soon  to  be  fructified,  and 

late  to  be  fructified.  By  making  Samyama  on 
that,  or  by  the  signs  called  Aristha,  portents, 
the  Yogis  know  the  exact  time  of  separation 
from  their  bodies. 

When  the  Yogt  makes  a  Sa?nyama  on  his  own  Karma, 
upon  those  impressions  in  his  mind  which  are  now 
working,  and  those  which  are  just  waiting  to  work,  he 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  I97 

knows  exactly  by  those  that  are  waiting  when  his  body 
will  fall.  He  knows  when  he  will  die,  at  what  hour, 
even  at  what  minute.  The  HindCis  think  very  much  of 
that  knowledge  or  consciousness  of  the  nearness  of 
death,  because  it  is  taught  in  the  Gitd  that  the  thoughts 
at  the  moment  of  departure  are  great  powers  in  deter- 
mining the  next  life. 

23.  By  making  Samyama  on  friendship,  etc.,  various 

strength  comes. 

24,  By  making  Samyama  on  the  strength  of  the  ele- 

phant, etc.,  that  strength  comes  to  the  Yogi 

When  a  Yogi  has  attained  to  this  Samyama  and  wants 
strength,  he  makes  a  Samyama  on  the  strength  of  the 
elephant,  and  gets  it.  Infinite  energy  is  at  the  disposal 
of  everyone,  if  he  only  knows  how  to  get  it.  The  Yogt 
has  discovered  the  science  of  getting  it, 

26.  By  making  Samyama  on  that  effulgent  light  comeg 
the  knowledge  of  the  fine,  the  obstructed,  and 
the  remote. 

When  the  Yogi  makes  Samya77ia  on  that  effulgent 
light  in  the  heart  he  sees  things  which  are  very 
remote,  things,  for  instance,  that  are  happening  in  a 
distant  place,  and  which  are  obstructed  by  mountain 
barriers  and  also  things  which  are  very  fine. 

26.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  sun  the  knowledge  of 

the  world. 

27.  On  the  moon  the  knowledge  of  the  cluster  of  stars. 


198  rAja  yoga. 

28.  On  the  pole  star  the  motions  of  the  stars. 

29.  On  the  navel  circle  the  knowledge  of  the  coustit* 

tion  of  the  body. 

30.  On  the  well  of  the  throat  cessation  of  hnnger. 

When  a  man  is  very  hungry,  if  he  can  make  Sam' 
yama  on  the  pit  of  the  throat  hunger  ceases. 

31.  On  the  nerve  called  Kurma  fixity  of  the  body. 

When  he  is  practising  the  body  is  not  disturbed. 

32.  On  the  light  from  the  top  of  the  head  sight  of  the 

Siddhaso 

The  SiddJias  are  beings  who  are  a  little  above  ghosts. 
When  the  K?^/ concentrates  his  mind  on  the  top  of  his 
head  he  will  see  these  Siddhas.  The  word  Siddha  does 
not  refer  to  those  men  who  have  become  free  —  a 
sense  in  which  it  is  often  used. 

33.  Or  by  the  power  of  Pratibha  all  knowledge. 

All  these  can  come  without  any  Samyama  to  the  man 
who  has  the  power  of  Pratibhd  (enlightenment  from 
purity).  This  is  when  a  man  has  risen  to  a  high  state 
of  Pratibhd;  then  he  has  that  great  light.  All  things 
are  apparent  to  him.  Everything  comes  to  him  natur- 
ally, without  making  Samyama  or  anything. 

34.  In  the  heart,  knowledge  of  minds. 

35.  Enjoyment  comes  by  the  non-discrimination  of 

the  very  distant  soul  and  Sattva.    Its  actions 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  tQ^ 

are  for  another :  Samyaiua  on  this  gives  knowl- 
edge of  the  Purusa. 

This  power  of  non-attachment  acquired  through 
purity  gives  the  Vogz  the  enlightenment  called  Pratibhd. 

36.  From  that  arises  the  knowledge  of  hearing,  touch- 

ing, seeing,  tasting,  and  smelling,  belonging  to 
Pratibha. 

37.  These  are  obstacles  to  Samadhi;  bnt  they  are 

powers  in  the  worldly  state. 

If  the  Yogi  knows  all  these  enjoyments  of  the  world 
it  comes  by  the  junction  of  the  Puruia  and  the  mind. 
If  he  wants  to  make  Safnyama  on  this,  that  they  are 
two  different  things,  nature  and  soul,  he  gets  knowl- 
edge of  the  Puruia.  From  that  arises  discrimination. 
When  he  has  got  that  discrimination  he  gets  the 
Pratibhd^  the  light  of  supreme  genius.  These  powers, 
however,  are  obstructions  to  the  attainment  of  the 
highest  goal,  the  knowledge  of  the  pure  Self,  and  free- 
dom; these  are,  as  it  were,  to  be  met  in  the  way,  and, 
if  the  Yogi  rejects  them,  he  attains  the  highest.  If  he 
is  tempted  to  acquire  these,  his  farther  progress  is 
barred. 

38.  When  the  cause  of  bondage  has  become  loosened, 

the  Yogi,  by  his  knowledge  of  manifestation 
through  the  organs,  enters  another's  body. 

The  Yogi  can  enter  a  dead  body,  and  make  it  get  up 
and  move,  even  while  he  himself  is  working  in  another 


200  rAja  yoga, 

body.  Or  he  can  enter  a  living  body,  and  hold  that 
man's  mind  and  organs  in  check,  and  for  the  time 
being  act  through  the  body  of  that  man.  That  is  done 
by  the  Yogi  coming  to  this  discrimination  of  Puruia 
and  nature.  If  he  wants  to  enter  another's  body  he 
makes  a  Samyajna  on  that  body  and  enters  it,  because, 
not  only  is  his  Soul  omnipresent,  but  his  mind  also, 
according  to  the  Yogi.  It  is  one  bit  of  the  universal 
mind.  Now,  however,  it  can  only  work  through  the 
nerve  currents  in  this  body,  but  when  the  Yogi  has 
loosened  himself  from  these  nerve  currents,  he  will  be 
able  to  work  through  other  things. 

39.  By  conquering  the  cnrrent  called  Udana  the  Yogi 

does  not  sink  in  water,  or  in  swamps,  and  ho 
can  walk  on  thorns. 

Uddna  is  the  name  of  the  nerve  current  that  governs 
the  lungs,  and  all  the  upper  parts  of  the  body,  and 
when  he  is  master  of  it  he  becomes  light  in  weight. 
He  cannot  sink  in  water;  he  can  walk  on  thorns  and 
sword  blades,  and  stand  in  fire,  and  so  on. 

40.  By  the  conquest  of  the  current  Sam^na  he  is  sur- 

rounded by  blaze. 

Whenever  he  likes  light  flashes  from  his  body. 

41.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  relation  between  the 

A 

ear  and  the  Akasa  comes  divine  hearing. 

There  is  the  Akdia^  the  ether,  and  the  instrument, 
the  ear.     By  making  Samyama  on  them   the  Yogi  gets 


YOGA  APHORISMS.  20I 

divine  hearing;  he  hears  everything.    Anything  spoken 
or  sounded  miles  away  he  can  hear. 

42.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  relation  between  the 

Akasa  and  the  body  the  Yogi  becoming  light  as 
cotton  wool  goes  through  the  skies. 

This  Akdia  is  the  material  of  this  body;  it  is  only 
Akdia  in  a  certain  form  that  has  become  the  body.  If 
the  Yogi  makes  a  Samyama  on  this  Akdia  material  of 
his  body,  it  acquires  the  lightness  oi  Akdia^  and  can 
go  anywhere  through  the  air. 

43.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  real  modifications  of 

the  mind,  which  are  outside,  called  great  dis- 
embodiedness,  comes  disappearance  of  the  cover- 
ing to  light. 

The  mind  in  its  foolishness  thinks  that  it  is  working 
in  this  body.  Why  should  I  be  bound  by  one  system 
of  nerves,  and  put  the  Ego  only  in  one  body,  if  the 
mind  is  omnipresent  ?  There  is  no  reason  why  I 
should.  The  Yogi  wants  to  feel  the  Ego  wherever  he 
likes.  When  he  has  succeeded  in  that  all  covering  to 
light  goes  away,  and  all  darkness  and  ignorance  van- 
ish.   Everything  appears  to  him  to  be  full  of  knowledge. 

44.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  elements,  beginning 

with  the  gross,  and  ending  with  the  superfine, 
comes  mastery  of  the  elements. 

The  Yogi  makes  Samyama  on  the  elements,  first  on 
the  gross,  and  then  on  the  finer  states.  This  Samyama 
is  taken  up  more  by  a  sect  of  the  Buddhists.     They 


202  RAJA   YOGA. 

take  a  lump  of  clay,  and  make  Samyama  on  that,  and 
gradually  they  begin  to  see  the  fine  materials  of  which 
it  is  composed,  and  when  they  have  known  all  the  fine 
materials  in  it,  they  get  power  over  that  element.  So 
with  all  the  elements,  the  Yogi  can  conquer  them  all. 

45.  From  that  comes  minuteness,  etc.,  glorification  of 

the  body,  and  indestructibleness  of  the  bodily 
qualities. 

This  means  that  the  Yogi  has  attained  the  eight 
powers.  He  can  make  himself  as  light  as  a  particle, 
he  can  make  himself  huge,  as  heavy  as  the  earth, 
or  as  light  as  the  air;  he  will  rule  everything  he 
wants,  he  will  conquer  everything  he  wants,  a  lion  will 
sit  at  his  feet  like  a  lamb,  and  all  his  desires  be  ful- 
filled at  will. 

46.  The  glorification  of  the  body  are  beauty,  com- 

plexion, strength,  adamantine  hardness. 

The  body  becomes  indestructible;  fire  cannot  injure 
it.  Nothing  can  injure  it.  Nothing  can  destroy  it 
until  the  Yogi  wishes.  "  Breaking  the  rod  of  time  he 
lives  in  this  universe  with  his  body."  In  the  Vedas  it  is 
written  that  for  that  man  there  is  no  more  disease, 
death  or  pain. 

47.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  objectivity,  knowl, 

edge  and  egoism  of  the  organs,  by  gradation 
comes  the  conquest  of  the  organs. 

In  perception  of  external  objects  the  organs  leave 
their  place  in  the  mind  and  go  towards  the  object;  that 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  203 

is  followed  by  knowledge  and  egoism.  When  the 
Yogi  makes  Samyama  on  these  by  gradation  he  con- 
quers the  organs.  Take  up  anything  that  you  see  or 
feel,  a  book,  for  instance,  and  first  concentrate  the 
mind  on  the  thing  itself.  Then  on  the  knowledge  that 
is  in  the  form  of  a  book,  and  then  the  Ego  that  sees 
the  book.  By  that  practice  all  the  organs  will  be 
conquered. 

48.  From  that  comes   glorified   mind,  power  of  the 

organs  independently  of  the  body,  and  conquest 
of  nature. 

Just  as  by  the  conquest  of  the  elements  comes 
glorified  body,  so  from  the  conquest  of  the  mind  will 
come  glorified  mind. 

49.  By  making  Samyama  on  the  Sattva,  to  him  who 

has  discriminated  between  the  intellect  and  the 
Purusa  come  omnipresence  and  omniscience. 

When  we  have  conquered  nature,  and  realised  the  dif- 
ference between  the  Puruhi  and  nature,  that  the  Furuia 
is  indestructible,  pure  and  perfect,  when  the  Yogi  has 
realised  this,  then  comes  omnipotence  and  omniscience. 

50.  By  giving  up  even  these  comes  the  destruction  of 

the  very  seed  of  evil ;  he  attains  Kaivalya. 

He  attains  aloneness,  independence.  Then  that 
man  is  free.  When  he  gives  up  even  the  ideas  of 
omnipotence   and   omniscience,   there    will   be   entire 


204  RAJA   YOGA. 

rejection  of  enjoyment,  of  the  temptations  from  celes- 
tial beings.  When  the  Yogi  has  seen  all  these  wonder- 
ful powers,  and  rejected  them,  he  reaches  the  goal. 
What  are  all  these  powers  ?  Simply  manifestations. 
They  are  no  better  than  dreams.  Even  omnipotence 
is  a  dream.  It  depends  on  the  mind.  So  long  as 
there  is  a  mind  it  can  be  understood,  but  the  goal  is 
beyond  even  the  mind. 

51.  There  should  be  entire  rejection  of  enjoyment  of 

the  temptations  from  celestial  beings,  for  fear 
of  evil  again. 

There  are  other  dangers  too;  gods  and  other  beings 
come  to  tempt  the  Yogi.  They  do  not  want  anyone 
to  be  perfectly  free.  They  are  jealous,  just  as  we  are, 
and  worse  than  we  sometimes.  They  are  very  much 
afraid  of  losing  their  places.  Those  Yogis  who  do  not 
reach  perfection  die  and  become  gods;  leaving  the 
direct  road  they  go  into  one  of  the  side  streets,  and 
get  these  powers.  Then  again  they  have  to  be  born; 
but  he  who  is  strong  enough  to  withstand  these  temp- 
tations, and  go  straight  to  the  goal,  becomes  free. 

52.  By  making  Samyama  on  a  particle  of  time  and 

its  mnltiples  comes  discrimination. 

How  are  we  to  avoid  all  these  things,  these  Devas^ 
and  heavens,  and  powers  ?  By  discrimination,  by 
knowing  good  from  evil.  Therefore  a  Samyama  is 
given  by  which   the  power  of  discrimination   can  be 


yOga  aphorisms.  205 

strengthened.     This   is  by   making   a   Samyama   on  a 
particle  of  time. 

53.  Those  which  cannot  be  differentiated  by  species, 
sign  and  place,  even  they  will  be  discriminated 
by  the  above  Samyama. 

The  misery  that  we  suffer  comes  from  ignora\ice, 
from  non-discrimination  between  the  real  and  the 
unreal.  We  are  all  taking  that  which  is  bad  for  that 
which  is  good,  and  that  which  is  a  dream  for  that 
which  is  real.  Soul  is  the  only  reality,  and  we  have 
forgotten  it.  Body  is  an  unreal  dream,  and  we  think 
we  are  all  bodies.  So  this  non-discrimination  is  the 
cause  of  misery,  and  it  is  caused  by  ignorance.  When 
discrimination  comes  it  brings  strength,  and  then  alone 
can  we  avoid  all  these  various  ideas  of  body,  and 
heavens,  and  gods  and  Devas.  This  ignorance  arises 
through  differentiating  by  species,  sign  or  place.  For 
instance,  take  a  cow.  The  cow  is  differentiated  from 
the  dog,  as  species.  Even  with  the  cows  alone  how 
do  we  make  the  distinction  between  one  cow  and 
another  }  By  signs.  If  two  objects  are  exactly  similar 
they  can  be  distinguished  if  they  are  in  different 
places.  When  objects  are  so  mixed  up  that  even  these 
differentiae  will  not  help  us,  the  power  of  discrimina- 
tion acquired  by  the  above-mentioned  practice  will 
give  us  the  ability  to  distinguish  them.  The  highest 
philosophy  of  the  Yogi  is  based  upon  this  fact,  that 
the  Purida  is  pure  and  perfect,  and  is  the  only  simple 
that  exists  in  this  universe.      The  body  and  mind  are 


2o6  RAJA   YOGA. 

compounds,  and  yet  we  are  ever  identifying  ourselves 
with  them.  That  is  the  great  mistake  that  the  distinc- 
tion has  been  lost.  When  this  power  of  discrimina- 
tion has  been  attained,  man  sees  that  everything  in 
this  world,  mental  and  physical,  is  a  compound,  and, 
as  such,  cannot  be  the  Purusa. 

54.  The  saving  knowledge  is  that  knowledge  of  dis- 

crimination which  covers  all  objects,  all  means. 

Isolation,  that  is  the  goal;  when  that  is  attained, 
the  soul  will  find  that  it  was  alone  all  the  time,  and  it 
required  no  one  to  make  it  happy.  As  long  as  we 
require  someone  else  to  make  us  happy  we  are  slaves. 
When  the  Purusa  finds  that  It  is  free,  and  does  not 
require  anything  to  complete  Itself,  that  this  nature  is 
quite  unnecessary,  then  freedom  is  attained.  Then 
comes  this  Kaivalya. 

55.  By  the  similarity  of  purity  between  the  Sattvaand 

the  Purusa  comes  Kaivalya. 

When  the  soul  realises  that  it  depends  on  nothing  in 
the  universe,  from  gods  to  the  lowest  atom,  that  is 
called  Kaivalya  (isolation)  and  perfection.  It  is 
attained  when  this  mixture  of  purity  and  impurity 
called  mmd  has  been  made  as  pure  as  the  Puruia 
Itself;  then  the  Sattva^  the  mind,  reflects  only  the  un- 
qualified essence  of  purity,  which  is  the  Puruia, 


CHAPTER    IV. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

1.  The  Siddhis  (powers)  are  attained  by  birth,  chemi- 
cal means,  power  of  words,  mortification  or  con- 
centration. 

Sometimes  a  man  is  born  with  the  Siddhis^  powers, 
of  course  from  the  exercise  of  powers  he  had  in  his 
previous  birth.  In  this  birth  he  is  born,  as  it  were,  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  them.  It  is  said  of  Kapila^  the 
great  father  of  the  Sdnkhya  Philosophy,  that  he  was  a 
born  Siddhcy  which  means,  literally,  a  man  who  has 
attained  to  success.  The  Yogis  claim  that  these 
powers  can  be  gained  by  chemical  means.  All  of  you 
know  that  chemistry  originally  began  as  alchemy; 
men  went  in  search  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  and 
elixirs  of  life,  and  so  forth.  In  India  there  was  a  sect 
called  the  Rdsdyanaj.  Their  idea  was  that  ideality, 
knowledge,  spirituality  and  religion,  were  all  very 
right,  but  that  the  body  was  the  only  instrument  by 
which  to  attain  to  all  these.  If  the  body  broke  now 
and  then  it  would  take  so  much  more  time  to  attain  to 
the  goal.  For  instance,  a  man  wants  to  practise  Yoga^ 
or  wants  to  become  spiritual.  Before  he  has  advanced 
very  far  he  dies.  Then  he  takes  another  body  and 
begins  again,  then  dies,  and   so  on,  and  in   this  way 

[207] 


2o8  rAja  yoga. 

much  time  will  be  lost  in  dying  and  being  born  again. 
If  the  body  could  be  made  strong  and  perfect,  so  that 
it  would  get  rid  of  birth  and  death,  we  should  have  so 
much  more  time  to  become  spiritual.  So  these  Rdsd- 
yanas  say,  first  make  the  body  very  strong,  and  they 
claim  that  this  body  can  be  made  immortal.  Their 
idea  is  that  if  the  mind  is  manufacturing  the  body, 
and  if  it  be  true  that  each  mind  is  only  one  particular 
outlet  to  that  infinite  energy,  and  that  there  is  no  limit 
to  each  particular  outlet  getting  any  amount  of  power 
from  outside,  why  is  it  impossible  that  we  should  keep 
our  bodies  all  the  time  ?  We  shall  have  to  manufac- 
ture all  the  bodies  that  we  shall  ever  have.  As  soon 
as  this  body  dies  we  shall  have  to  manufacture  another. 
If  we  can  do  that  why  cannot  we  do  it  just  here  and 
now,  without  getting  out  ?  The  theory  is  perfectly 
correct.  If  it  is  possible  that  we  live  after  death,  and 
make  other  bodies,  why  is  it  impossible  that  we  should 
have  the  power  of  making  bodies  here,  without  entirely 
dissolving  this  body,  simply  changing  it  continually  ? 
They  also  thought  that  in  mercury  and  in  sulphur  was 
hidden  the  most  wonderful  power,  and  that  by  certain 
preparations  of  these  a  man  could  keep  the  body  as 
long  as  he  liked.  Others  believed  that  certain  drugs 
could  bring  powers,  such  as  flying  through  the  air,  etc. 
Many  of  the  most  wonderful  medicines  of  the  present 
day  we  owe  to  the  Rdsdyanas^  notably  the  use  of  metals 
in  medicine.  Certain  sects  of  Yogis  claim  that  many 
of  their  principal  teachers  are  still  living  in  their  old 
bodies.     Fatanjali^  the  great  authority  on  Yo^a^  does 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  209 

not  deny  this.  The  power  of  words  There  are  cer- 
tain sacred  words  called  Mantrams^  which  have  power, 
when  repeated  under  proper  conditions,  to  produce 
these  extraordinary  powers  We  are  living  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  mass  of  miracles,  day  and  night,  that 
we  do  not  think  anything  of  them.  There  is  no  limit 
to  man's  power,  the  power  of  words  and  the  power  of 
mind.  Mortification.  You  find  that  in  every  religion 
mortifications  and  asceticisms  have  been  practised. 
In  these  religious  conceptions  the  Hindtis  always  go  to 
the  extremes.  You  will  find  men  standing  with  their 
hands  up  all  their  lives,  until  their  hands  wither  and 
die.  Men  sleep  standing,  day  and  night,  until  their 
feet  swell,  and,  if  they  live,  the  legs  become  so  stiff  in 
this  position  that  they  can  no  more  bend  them,  but  have 
to  stand  all  their  lives.  I  once  saw  a  man  who  had  raised 
his  hands  in  this  way,  and  I  asked  him  how  it  felt 
when  he  did  it  first.  He  said  it  was  awful  torture.  It 
was  such  torture  that  he  had  to  go  to  a  river  and  put 
himself  in  water,  and  that  allayed  the  pain  for  a  little. 
After  a  month  he  did  not  suffer  much.  Through  such 
practices  powers  {^Siddhis)  can  be  attained.  Concentra- 
tion. The  concentration  is  Samddhi^  and  that  is  Yoga 
proper;  that  is  the  principal  theme  of  this  science,  and 
it  is  the  highest  means.  The  preceding  ones  are  only 
secondary  and  we  cannot  attain  to  the  highest  through 
them.  Samddhi  is  the  means  through  which  we  can 
gain  anything  and  everything,  mental,  moral  or 
spiritual. 

14 


2IO  RAJA   YOGA. 

2.  The  changre  into  another  species  is  by  the  filling  in 

of  nature. 

Patanjali  has  advanced  the  proposition  that  these 
powers  come  by  birth,  sometimes  by  chemical  means, 
or  they  may  be  got  by  mortification  and  he  has 
admitted  that  this  body  can  be  kept  for  any  length  of 
time.  Now  he  goes  on  to  state  what  is  the  cause  of 
the  change  of  the  body  into  another  species,  which  he 
says  is  by  the  filling  in  of  nature.  In  the  next  aphor- 
ism he  will  explain  this. 

3.  Good  deeds,  etc.,  are  not  the  direct  canses  in  the 

transformations   of   nature,   but   they   act   as 
breakers  of  obstacles  to  the  evolutions  of  nature, 
as  a  farmer  breaks  the  obstacles  to  the  course  of 
water,  which  then  runs  down  by  its  own  nature. 

When  a  farmer  is  irrigating  his  field  the  water  is 
already  in  the  canals,  only  there  are  gates  which  keep 
the  water  in.  The  farmer  opens  these  gates,  and  the 
water  flows  in  by  itself,  by  the  law  of  gravitation. 
So,  all  human  progress  and  power  are  already  in  every- 
thing; this  perfection  is  every  man's  nature,  only  it  is 
barred  in  and  prevented  from  taking  its  proper  course. 
If  anyone  can  take  the  bar  off  in  rushes  nature. 
Then  the  man  attains  the  powers  which  are  his  already. 
Those  we  called  wicked  become  saints,  as  soon  as  the 
bar  IS  broken  and  nature  rushes  in.  It  is  nature  that 
is  driving  us  towards  perfection,  and  eventually  she 
will  bring  everyone  there.     All    these   practices  and 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  211 

Struggles  to  become  religious  are  only  negative  work, 
to  take  off  the  bars,  and  open  the  doors  to  that  perfec- 
tion which  is  our  birthright,  our  nature.  To-day  the 
evolution  theory  of  the  ancient  Yogis  will  be  better 
understood  in  the  light  of  modern  research.  And  yet 
the  theory  of  the  Yogis  is  a  better  explanation.  The 
two  causes  of  evolution  advanced  by  the  moderns,  viz.^ 
sexual  selection  and  survival  of  the  fittest,  are  inade- 
quate. Suppose  human  knowledge  to  have  advanced 
so  much  as  to  eliminate  competition,  both  from  the 
function  of  acquiring  physical  sustenance  and  of 
acquiring  a  mate.  Then,  according  to  the  moderns, 
human  progress  will  stop  and  the  race  will  die.  And 
the  result  of  this  theory  is  to  furnish  every  oppressor 
with  an  argument  to  calm  the  qualms  of  conscience, 
and  men  are  not  lacking,  who,  posing  as  philosophers, 
want  to  kill  out  all  wicked  and  incompetent  persons 
(they  are,  of  course,  the  only  judges  of  competency), 
and  thus  preserve  the  human  race  !  But  the  great 
ancient  evolutionist,  Patanjali^  declares  that  the  true 
secret  of  evolution  is  the  manifestation  of  the  perfec- 
tion which  is  already  in  every  being;  that  this  perfec- 
tion has  been  barred,  and  the  infinite  tide  behind  is 
struggling  to  express  itself.  These  struggles  and 
competitions  are  but  the  results  of  our  ignorance,  be- 
cause we  do  not  know  the  proper  way  to  unlock  the 
gate  and  let  the  water  in.  This  infinite  tide  behind 
must  express  itself,  and  it  is  the  cause  of  all  manifes- 
tation, not  competition  for  life,  oi  sex  gratification, 
which   are  only  momentary,  unnecessary,  extraneous 


212  RAJA   YOGA. 

effects,  caused  by  ignorance.  Even  when  all  competi- 
tion has  ceased  this  perfect  nature  behind  will  make  us 
go  forward  until  every  one  has  become  perfect. 
Therefore  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  competi- 
tion is  necessary  to  progress.  In  the  animal  the  man 
was  suppressed,  but,  as  soon  as  the  door  was  opened, 
out  rushed  man.  So,  in  man  there  is  the  potential 
god,  kept  in  by  the  locks  and  bars  of  ignorance.  When 
knowledge  breaks  these  bars  the  god  becomes  manifest. 

4.  From  egoism  alone  proceed  tke  created  minds. 

The  theory  of  Karma  is  that  we  suffer  for  our  good 
or  bad  deeds,  and  the  whole  scope  of  philosophy  is  to 
approach  the  glory  of  man.  All  the  Scriptures  sing 
the  glory  of  man,  of  the  soul,  and  then,  with  the  same 
breath,  they  preach  this  Karma.  A  good  deed  brings 
such  a  result,  and  a  bad  deed  such  a  result,  but,  if  the 
soul  can  be  acted  upon  by  a  good  or  a  bad  deed  it 
amounts  to  nothing.  Bad  deeds  put  a  bar  to  the  mani- 
festation of  our  nature,  of  the  Puruia^  and  good  deeds 
take  the  obstacles  off,  and  its  glory  becomes  manifest. 
But  the  Purusa  itself  is  never  changed.  Whatever  you 
do  never  destroys  your  own  glory,  your  own  nature, 
because  the  soul  cannot  be  acted  upon  by  anything, 
only  a  veil  is  spread  before  it,  hiding  its  perfection. 

5.  Though   the   activities   of  the   different  created 

minds  are  various,  the  one  original  mind  is  the 
controller  of  them  all. 

These  different  minds,  which  will  act  in  these  differ- 
ent bodies,   are    called   made-minds,   and   the    bodies 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  213 

•Hade-bodies ;  that  is,  manufactured  bodies  and  minds. 
Matter  and  mind  are  like  two  inexhaustible  store- 
houses. When  you  have  become  a  Yogi  you  have 
learned  the  secret  of  their  control.  It  was  yours  all 
the  time,  but  you  had  forgotten  it.  When  you  become 
a  Yogi  you  recollect  it.  Then  you  can  do  anything 
with  it,  manipulate  it  in  every  way  you  like.  The 
material  out  of  which  that  manufactured  mind  is  cre- 
ated is  the  very  same  material  which  is  used  as  the 
macrocosm.  It  is  not  that  mind  is  one  thing  and  mat- 
ter another,  but  they  are  different  existences  of  the 
same  thing.  Asmitd^  egoism,  is  the  material,  the  fine 
state  of  existence  out  of  which  these  made-minds  and 
made-bodies  of  the  Yogi  will  be  manufactured.  There- 
fore, when  the  Yogi  has  found  the  secret  of  these 
energies  of  nature  he  can  manufacture  any  number  of 
bodies,  or  minds,  but  they  will  all  be  manufactured 
out  of  the  substance  known  as  egoism. 

6.  Among  the  various  Ghittas  that  which  is  attained 
by  Samadhi  is  desireless. 

Among  all  the  various  minds  that  we  see  in  various 
men,  only  that  mind  which  has  attained  to  Samddhi^ 
perfect  concentration,  is  the  highest.  A  man  who  has 
attained  certain  powers  through  medicines,  or  through 
words,  or  through  mortifications,  still  has  desires,  but 
that  man  who  has  attained  to  Samddhi  through  con 
centration  is  alone  free  from  all  desires. 


214  RAja  yoga. 

7.  Works  are  neither  black  nor  wMte  for  the  Yogis; 

for  others  they  are  threefold,  black,  white,  and 
mixed. 

When  the  Yogi  has  attained  to  that  state  of  perfec- 
tion, the  actions  of  that  man,  and  the  Karma  produced 
by  those  actions,  will  not  bind  him,  because  he  did  not 
desire  them.  He  just  works  on;  he  works  to  do  good, 
and  he  does  good,  but  does  not  care  for  the  result,  and 
it  will  not  come  to  him.  But  for  ordinary  men,  who 
have  not  attained  to  that  highest  state,  works  are  of 
three  kinds,  black  (evil  actions),  white  (good  actions), 
and  mixed. 

8.  From  these  threefold  works  are  manifested  in  each 

state  only  those  desires  (which  are)  fitting  to 
that  state  alone.  (The  others  are  held  in  abey- 
ance for  the  time  being.) 

Suppose  I  have  made  the  three  kinds  of  Karma^ 
good,  bad  and  mixed,  and  suppose  I  die  and  become  a 
god  in  heaven;  the  desires  in  a  god  body  are  not  the 
same  as  the  desires  in  a  human  body.  The  god  body 
neither  eats  nor  drinks;  what  becomes  of  my  past 
unworked  Karmas,  which  produce  as  their  effect  the 
desire  to  eat  and  drink  ?  Where  would  these  Karmas 
go  when  I  became  a  god  ?  The  answer  is  that  desires 
can  only  manifest  themselves  in  proper  environments. 
Only  those  desires  will  come  out  for  which  the  environ- 
ment is  fitted;  the  rest  will  remain  stored  up.  In  this 
life  we  have  many  godly  desires,  many  human  desireSj 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  21$ 

many  animal  desires.  If  I  take  a  god  body,  only  the 
good  desires  will  come  up,  because  for  them  the 
environments  are  suitable.  And  if  I  take  an  animal 
body,  only  the  animal  desires  will  come  up,  and  the 
good  desires  will  wait.  What  does  that  show  ?  That 
by  means  of  environment  we  can  check  these  desires. 
Only  that  Karma  which  is  suited  to  and  fitted  for  the 
environments  will  come  out.  This  proves  that  the 
power  of  environment  is  the  great  check  to  control 
even  Karma  itself. 

9.  There  is  consecutiveness  in  desire,  even  thongh 
separated  by  species,  space  and  time,  there  be- 
ing identification  of  memory  and  impressions. 

Experiences  becoming  fine  become  impressions; 
impressions  revivified  become  memory.  The  word 
memory  here  includes  unconscious  co-ordination  of 
past  experience,  reduced  to  impressions,  with  present 
conscious  action.  In  each  body  the  group  of  impres- 
sions acquired  in  a  similar  body  only  will  become  the 
cause  of  action  in  that  body.  The  experiences  of  dis- 
similar bodies  will  be  held  in  abeyance.  Each  body 
will  act  as  if  it  were  a  descendant  of  a  series  of  bodies 
of  that  species  only;  thus,  consecutiveness  of  desires 
will  not  be  broken. 

10.  Thirst  for  happiness  being  eternal  desires  are 
without  beginning. 

All  experience  is  preceded  by  desire  for  becoming 
happy.      There   was  no    beginning  of  experience,   as 


2l6  RAJA   YOGA. 

each  fresh  experience  is  built  upon  the  tendency  gene- 
rated by  past  experience;  therefore  desire  is  without 
beginning. 

11.  Being  held  together  by  cause,  effect,  support,  and 

objects,  in  the  absence  of  these  is  its  absence. 

These  desires  are  held  together  by  cause  and  effect; 
if  a  desire  has  been  raised  it  does  not  die  without  pro- 
ducing its  effect.  Then  again,  the  mind-stuff  is  the 
great  storehouse,  the  support  of  all  past  desires, 
reduced  to  Samskdra  form;  until  they  have  worked 
themselves  out  they  will  not  die.  Moreover,  so  long 
as  the  senses  receive  the  external  objects  fresh  desires 
will  arise.  If  it  be  possible  to  get  rid  of  these,  then 
alone  desires  will  vanish. 

12.  The  past  and  future  exist  in  their  own  nature, 

qualities  having  different  ways. 

13.  They  are  manifested  or  fine,  being  of  the  nature  of 

the  Gunas. 

The  Gunas  arc  the  three  substances,  Sattva^  RaJaSy 
and  TamaSy  whose  gross  state  is  the  sensible  universe. 
Past  and  future  arise  from  the  different  modes  of  mani- 
festation of  these  Gunas. 

14.  The  unity  in  things  is  from  the  unity  in  changes. 

Though  there  are  three  substances  their  changes 
being  co-ordinated  all  objects  have  their  unity. 

15.  The  object  being  the  same,  perception  and  desire 

vary  according  to  the  various  minds. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  21/ 

16.  Things  are  known  or  unknown  to  the  mind^  being 

dependent  on  the  colouring  which  they  give  to 
the  mind. 

17.  The  states  of  the  mind  are  always  known  because 

the  lord  of  the  mind  is  unchangeable. 

The  whole  gist  of  this  theory  is  that  the  universe  is 
both  mental  and  material.  And  both  the  mental  and 
material  worlds  are  in  a  continuous  state  of  flux. 
What  is  this  book  ?  It  is  a  combination  of  molecules 
in  constant  change.  One  lot  is  going  out,  and  another 
coming  in;  it  is  a  whirlpool,  but  what  makes  the 
unity  ?  What  makes  it  the  same  book  ?  The  changes 
are  rhythmical;  in  harmonious  order  they  are  sending 
impressions  to  my  mind,  and  these  pieced  together 
make  a  continuous  picture,  although  the  parts  are 
continuously  changing.  Mind  itself  is  continuously 
changing.  The  mind  and  body  are  like  two  layers  in 
the  same  substance,  moving  at  different  rates  of  speed. 
Relatively,  one  being  slower  and  the  other  quicker,  we 
can  distinguish  between  the  two  motions.  For 
instance,  a  train  is  moving,  and  another  carriage  is 
moving  slowl}'-  alongside  it.  It  is  possible  to  fmd  the 
motion  of  both  these,  to  a  certain  extent.  But  still 
something  else  is  necessary.  Motion  can  only  be  per- 
ceived when  there  is  something  else  which  is  not  mov- 
ing. But  when  two  or  three  things  are  relatively 
moving,  we  first  perceive  the  motion  of  the  faster  one, 
and  then  that  of  the  slower  ones.  How  is  the  mind  to 
perceive  ?      It  is  also  in  a    flux.     Therefore   another 


21 8  rAja  yoga. 

thing  is  necessary  which  moves  more  slowly,  then  you 
must  get  to  something  in  which  the  motion  is  still 
slower,  and  so  on,  and  you  will  find  no  end.  There- 
fore logic  compels  you  to  stop  somewhere.  You  must 
complete  the  series  by  knowing  something  which  never 
changes.  Behind  this  never  ending  chain  of  motion  is 
the  Puruia^  the  changeless,  the  colourless,  the  pure. 
All  these  impressions  are  merely  reflected  upon  it,  as 
rays  of  light  from  a  camera  are  reflected  upon  a  white 
sheet,  painting  hundreds  of  pictures  on  it,  without  in 
any  way  tarnishing  the  sheet. 

18.  Mind  is  not  self-luminous,  being  an  object. 

Tremendous  power  is  manifested  everywhere  in 
nature,  but  yet  something  tells  us  that  it  is  not  self- 
luminous,  not  essentially  intelligent.  The  Puruia 
alone  is  self-luminous,  and  gives  its  light  to  every- 
thing. It  is  its  power  that  is  percolating  through  all 
matter  and  force. 

19.  From  its  being  unable  to  cognise  two  things  at 

the  same  time. 

If  the  mind  were  self-luminous  it  would  be  able  to 
cognise  everything  at  the  same  time,  which  it  cannot. 
If  you  pay  deep  attention  to  one  thing  you  lose 
another.  If  the  mind  were  self-luminous  there  would 
be  no  limit  to  the  impressions  it  could  receive.  The 
Purusa  can  cognise  all  in  one  moment;  therefore  the 
Puruia  is  self-luminous,  and  the  mind  is  not. 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  219 

20.  Another  cognising  mind  being  assumed  there  will 

be  no  end  to  such  assumptions  and  confusion  of 
memory. 

Let  us  suppose  there  is  another  mind  which  cognises 
the  first,  there  will  have  to  be  something  which  cog- 
nises that,  and  so  there  will  be  no  end  to  it.  It  will 
result  in  confusion  of  memory,  there  will  be  no  store- 
house of  memory. 

21.  The  essence  of  knowledge  (the  Purusa)  being  un- 

changeable, when  the  mind  takes  its  form,  it 
becomes  conscious. 

Patanjali  says  this  to  make  it  more  clear  that  knowl- 
edge is  not  a  quality  of  the  Puruia.  When  the  mind 
comes  near  the  Puruia  it  is  reflected,  as  it  were,  upon 
the  mind,  and  the  mind,  for  the  time  being,  becomes 
knowing  and  seems  as  if  it  were  itself  the  Puruia. 

22.  Coloured  by  the  seer  and  the  seen  the  mind  is  able 

to  understand  everything. 

On  the  one  side  the  external  world,  the  seen,  is 
being  reflected,  and  on  the  other,  the  seer  is  being 
reflected;  thus  comes  the  power  of  all  knowledge  to 
the  mind. 

23.  The  mind  through  its  innumerable  desires  acts  for 

another  (the  Purusa),  being  combinations. 

The  mind  is  a  compound  of  various  things,  and 
therefore  it  cannot  work  for  itself.     Everything  that 


220  RAjA   yoga. 

is  a  combination  in  this  world  has  some  object  for  that 
combination,  some  third  thing  for  which  this  combina- 
tion is  going  on.  So  this  combination  of  the  mind  is 
for  the  Furuia. 

24.  For  the  discriminating  the  perception  of  the  mind 

A 

as  Atman  ceases. 

Through  discrimination  the  Yogi  knows  that  the 
Puruia  is  not  mind. 

25.  Then  bent  on  discriminating  the  mind  attains  the 

previous  state  of  Kaivalya  (isolation). 

Thus  the  practice  of  Yoga  leads  to  discriminating 
power,  to  clearness  of  vision.  The  veil  drops  from  the 
eyes,  and  we  see  things  as  they  are.  We  find  that  this 
nature  is  a  compound,  and  is  showing  the  panorama 
for  the  Puruia^  who  is  the  witness;  that  this  nature  is 
not  the  Lord,  that  the  whole  of  these  combinations  of 
nature  are  simply  for  the  sake  of  showing  these  phe- 
nomena to  the  Puruia^  the  enthroned  king  within. 
When  discrimination  comes  by  long  practice  fear 
ceases,  and  the  mind  attains  isolation. 

26.  The  thoughts  that  arise  as  obstructions  to  that  are 

&om  impressions. 

All  the  various  ideas  that  arise  making  us  believe 
that  we  require  something  external  to  make  us  happy 
are  obstructions  to  that  perfection.      The  Puruia  is 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  221 

happiness  and  blessedness  by  its  own  nature.  But  that 
knowledge  is  covered  over  by  past  impressions.  These 
impressions  have  to  work  themselves  out. 

27.  Their  destruction  is  in  the  same  manner  as  of 

ignorance,  etc.,  as  said  before. 

28.  Even  when  arriving  at  the  right  discriminating 

knowledge  of  the  essences,  he  who  gives  up  the 
fruits,  unto  him  comes  as  the  result  of  perfect 
discrimination,  the  Samadhi  called  the  cloud  of 
virtue. 

When  the  Vogi  ha.s  attained  to  this  discrimination,  all 
these  powers  will  come  that  were  mentioned  in  the  last 
chapter,  but  the  true  Vogi  rejects  them  all.  Unto  him 
comes  a  peculiar  knowledge,  a  particular  light  called 
the  Dharma  Megha,  the  cloud  of  virtue.  All  the  great 
prophets  of  the  world  whom  history  has  recorded  had 
this.  They  had  found  the  whole  foundation  of  knowl- 
edge within  themselves.  Truth  to  them  had  become 
real.  Peace  and  calmness,  and  perfect  purity  became 
their  own  nature,  after  they  had  given  up  all  these 
vanities  of  powers. 

29.  From  that  comes  cessation  of  pains  and  works. 

When  that  cloud  of  virtue  has  come,  then  no  more  is 
there  fear  of  falling,  nothing  can  drag  the  Yogi  down. 
No  more  will  there  be  evils  for  him.     No  more  pains. 


t22  RAjA   yoga. 

30.  Then  knowledge,  bereft  of  covering  and  impnritiea^ 

becoming  infinite,  the  knowable  becomes  small. 

Knowledge  itself  is  there;  its  covering  is  gone.  One 
of  the  Buddhistic  scriptures  sums  up  what  is  meant  by 
the  Buddha  (which  is  the  name  of  a  state).  It  defines 
it  as  infinite  knowledge,  infinite  as  the  sky.  Jesus 
attained  to  that  and  became  the  Christ.  All  of  you 
will  attain  to  that  state,  and  knowledge  becoming 
infinite,  the  knowable  becomes  small.  This  whole 
universe,  with  all  its  knowable,  becomes  as  nothing 
before  the  Puruia.  The  ordinary  man  thinks  himself 
very  small,  because  to  him  the  knowable  seems  to  be 
so  infinite. 

31.  Then  are  finished  the  successive  transformations 

of  the  qualities,  they  having  attained  the  end. 

Then  all  these  various  transformations  of  the  quali- 
ties, which  change  from  species  to  species,  cease  for 
ever. 

32.  The  changes  that  exist  in  relation  to  moments,  and 

which  are  perceived  at  the  other  end  (at  the 
end  of  a  series)  are  succession. 

Patanjali  here  defines  the  word  succession,  the 
changes  that  exist  in  relation  to  moments.  While  I 
am  thinking,  many  moments  pass,  and  with  each 
moment  there  is  a  change  of  idea,  but  we  only  perceive 
these  changes  at  the  end  of  a  series.  So,  perception 
of  time  is  always  in  the  memory.     This  is  called  suc' 


YOGA   APHORISMS.  223 

cession,  but  for  the  mind  that  has  realised  omnipres- 
ence all  these  have  finished.  Everything  has  become 
present  for  it;  the  present  alone  exists,  the  past  and 
future  are  lost.  This  stands  controlled,  and  all  knowl- 
edge is  there  in  one  second.  Everything  is  known 
like  a  flash. 

33.  The  resolution  in  the  inverse  order  of  the  qualities, 
bereft  of  any  motive  of  action  for  the  Purusa,  is 
Kaivalya,  or  it  is  the  establishment  of  the 
power  of  knowledge  in  its  own  nature. 

Nature's  task  is  done,  this  unselfish  task  which  our 
sweet  nurse  Nature  had  imposed  upon  herself.  As  it 
were,  she  gently  took  the  self-forgetting  soul  by  the 
Land,  and  showed  him  all  the  experiences  in  the  uni- 
verse, all  manifestations,  bringing  him  higher  and 
higher  through  various  bodies,  till  his  glory  came 
back,  and  he  remembered  his  own  nature.  Then  the 
kind  mother  went  back  the  same  way  she  came,  for 
others  who  also  have  lost  their  way  in  the  trackless 
desert  of  life.  And  thus  is  she  working,  without 
beginning  and  without  end.  And  thus  through  pleas- 
ure and  pain,  through  good  and  evil,  the  infinite  river 
of  souls  is  flowing  into  the  ocean  of  perfection,  of  self- 
realisation. 

Glory  unto  those  who  have  realised  their  own 
nature;  may  their   blessings  be  on  us  all. 


APPENDIX. 

References  to  Yoga. 

Sveta^vatara  Upanishad. 

Chapter  II. 

2-6-14.  Where  the  fire  is  churned,  where  the  air  is 
controlled,  where  the  flow  of  Soma  becomes  plentiful 

there  a  (perfect)  mind  is  created Placing 

the  body  in  which  the  chest,  the  throat,  and  the  head 
are  held  erect,  in  a  straight  posture,  making  the  organs 
enter  the  mind,  the  sage  crosses  all  the  fearful  cur- 
rents by  means  of  the  raft  of  Brahman. 

The  man  of  well  regulated  endeavours  controls  the 
Prdna^  and  when  it  has  become  quieted  breathes  out 
through  the  nostrils.  The  persevering  sage  holds  his 
mind  as  a  charioteer  holds  the  restive  horses. 

In  lonely  places,  as  mountain  caves,  etc.,  where  the 
floor  is  even,  free  of  pebbles  or  sand,  where  there  are 
no  disturbing  noises  from  men  or  waterfalls,  in  places 
helpful  to  the  mind  and  pleasing  to  the  eyes.  Yoga  is 
to  be  practised  (mind  is  to  be  joined). 

Like  snowfall,  smoke,  sun,  wind,  fire,  firefly,  light- 
ning, crystal,  moon,  these  forms,  coming  before, 
gradually  rr-anifest  the  Brahman  in  Yoga. 

When  the  perceptions  of  Yoga^  arising  from  earth, 
water,  light,  fire,  ether,  have  taken  place,  then   Yoga 

[224] 


i 


APPENDIX.  225 

has  begun.     Unto  him  does  not  conwi  disease,  nor  old 
age,  nor  death,  who  has  got  a  body  made  up  of  the  fire 

of  Yoga. 

The  first  signs  of  entering  Yoga  are  lightness,  health, 
the  skin  becomes  smooth,  the  complexion  clear,  the 
voice  beautiful,  and  there  is  an  agreeable  odour  in  the 

body. 

14.  As  gold  or  silver,  first  covered  with  earth,  etc., 
and  then  burned  and  washed,  shines  full  of  Ught,  so 
the  embodied  man  seeing  the  truth  of  the  Aiman  as 
one,  attains  the  goal  and  becomes  sorrowless. 

Yajnavalkya,  quoted  by  §ankara. 

•'  After  practising  the  postures  as  desired,  according 
to  rules,  then,  O  Gdrgi,  the  man  who  has  conquered 
the  posture  will  practise  Frdndydma. 

•'  On  the  seat  of  earth,  spreading  the  Ku^a  grass, 
and  over  it  a  skin,  worshipping   Ganapati  with  fruits 
and  sweetmeats,  seated  on  that  seat,  placing  the  oppo- 
site hands  on  the  knees,  holding  the  throat  and  head 
in  the  same  line,  the  lips  closed  and  firm,  facing  the 
east  or  the  north,  the  eyes  fixed  on  the  tip  of  the  nose, 
avoiding  too  much  food  or  fasting,  the  Nddis  should  be 
purified  according  to  the  above-mentioned  rule,  with- 
out which  the  practice  will  be  fruitless,  thinking  of  the 
(seed-word)  Hum^  at  the  junction  of  Pingald  and  Idi 
(the   right   and   the   left  nostrils),  the  Ida  should  be 
filled   with   external   air  in  twelve  Mdtrds  (seconds), 
then   the  Yogi  meditates  fire  in  the  same  place  and  the 
word  *  Rang;  and  while  meditating  thus,  slowly  rejects 
15 


226  rAja  yoga. 

the  air  through  the  Pingald  (right  nostril).  Again  fill- 
ing  in  through  the  Pingald  the  air  should  be  slowly 
rejected  through  the  Ida,  in  the  same  way.  This 
should  be  practised  for  three  or  four  years,  or  three 
or  four  months,  according  to  the  directions  of  a  Guru^ 
in  secret  (alone  in  a  room)  in  the  early  morning,  at 
midday,  in  the  evening,  and  at  midnight  (until)  the 
nerves  become  purified,  and  these  are  the  signs;  light- 
ness of  body,  clear  complexion,  good  appetite,  hearing 
of  the  Ndda.  Then  should  be  practised  Prdndydma, 
composed  of  Rechaka  (exhalation),  Kumbhaka  (reten- 
tion), and  PHraka  (inhalation).  Joining  the  Prdna 
with  the  Apdna  is  Prdndydma. 

**  In  sixteen  Mdtrds  filling  the  body  from  the  head  to 
the  feet  in  thirty-two  MdU'ds  to  be  thrown  out,  with 
sixty-four  the  Kumbhaka  should  be  made. 

"  There  is  another  sort  of  Prdndydma  in  which,  with 
sixteen  Mdtrds,  the  body  is  to  be  filled,  then  the  Ku77i- 
bhaka  is  made  with  sixty-four,  and  with  thirty-two  it 
should  be  rejected. 

**  By  Prdndydma  impurities  of  the  body  are  thrown 
out,  hy DhdraridXXit.  impurities  of  the  mind;  by  Praty- 
dhdra  impurities  of  attachment,  and  by  Samddhi  is  taken 
off  everything  that  hides  the  lordship  of  the  Soul." 

Sankhya. 
Book  III. 

29.  By  the  achievement  of  meditation,  there  are  to 
the  pure  one  (the  Puruia)  all  powers  like  nature. 

30.  Meditation  is  the  removal  of  attachment. 


APPENDIX.  227 

31.  It  is  perfected  by  the  suppression  of  the  modili- 
cations. 

32  By  meditation,  posture  and  performance  of  one's 
duties,  it  is  perfected. 

^;^.  Restraint  of  the  Prdna  is  by  means  of  expulsion 
and  retention. 

34.   Posture  is  that  which  is  steady  and  easy. 

36.   Also  by  non-attachment  and  practice. 

75.  By  practising  the  discrimination  of  the  princi- 
ples of  nature  from  the  Puruia^  and  by  giving  them 
up  as  "  not  It,  not  It,"  discrimination  is  perfected. 

Book  IV. 

3.   Repetition,  instruction  is  to  be  repeated. 

5.  As  the  hawk  becomes  unhappy  if  the  food  is 
taken  away  from  him,  and  happy  if  he  gives  it  up  him- 
self (so  he  who  gives  up  everything  voluntarily  is 
happy). 

6.  As  the  snake  is  happy  in  giving  up  his  old  skin. 

8.  That  which  is  not  a  means  of  liberation  is  not  to 
be  thought  of;  it  becomes  a  cause  of  bondage,  as  in 
the  case  of  Bharata. 

9.  From  the  association  of  many  things  there  is 
obstruction  to  meditation,  through  passion,  etc.,  like 
the  shell  bracelets  on  the  virgin's  hand. 

10.  It  is  the  same,  even  in  the  case  of  two. 

11.  The  hopeless  are  happy,  like  the  girl  Pitigald. 

13.  Although  devotion  is  to  be  given  to  many  insti- 
tutes and  teachers,  the  essence  is  to  be  taken  from  them 
all,  as  the  bee  takes  the  essence  from  many  flowers. 


228  KAJA    YOGA. 

14.  One  whose  mind  has  become  concentrated  like 
the  arrowmaker's,  his  meditation  is  not  disturbed. 

15.  Through  transgression  of  the  original  rules  there 
is  non-attainment  of  the  goal,  as  in  other  worldly  things. 

19.  By  continence,  reverence,  and  devotion  to  Guru, 
success  comes  after  a  long  time  (as  in  the  case  of  Indra.) 

20.  There   is  no  law  as  to   time  (as  in  the  case  of 
Vdmadeva). 

24.  Or  through  association  with  one  who  has  attained 
perfection. 

27.  Not  by  enjoyments  is  desire  appeased 

Book  V, 

128.  The   Siddhis  attained  by    Yoga  are  not  to  be 
denied. 

Book  VI. 

24.  Any  posture  which  is   easy   and   steady   is  an 
Asana  ;  there  is  no  other  rule. 

Vyasa  Stltra. 
Chapter  IV. ,   Section  i, 

7.  Worship  is  possible  in  a  sitting  posture. 

8.  Because  of  meditation. 

9.  Because  the  meditating  (person)  is  compared  to 
the  immovable  earth. 

10.  Also  because  the  Smritts  say  so. 

11.  There  is  no  law  of  place;  wherever  the  mind  is 
concentrated,  there  worship  should  be  performed. 

These  seiieral  extracts  give  an  idea  of  ivhat  other  sys- 
tems of  Indian  Philosophy  have  to  say  upon  Yoga. 


IMMORTALITY 

[329] 


IMMORTALITY 


What  question  has  been  asked  a  greater  number  of 
times;  what  idea  has  sent  men  more  to  search  the  uni- 
verse for  an  answer,  what  question  is  nearer  and  dearer 
to  the  human  heart,  what  question  is  more  inseparably 
connected    with    our    existence,    than    this    one,    the 
immortality   of  the   human    soul  ?      It   has   been    the 
theme    of    poets,    and    of    sages,    of    priests   and    of 
prophets;  kings  on  the  throne  have  discussed  it,  beg- 
gars in   the   street  have   dreamt  of  it.     The  best  of 
human   kind   have   approached    it,    and    the    worst  of 
human  kind  have  always  hoped  for  it.    The  interest  in 
the  theme  has  not  died  yet,  nor  will  it  die,  so  long  as 
human  nature  exists.     Various  answers  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  world   by  various  minds.     Thousands, 
again,  in   every   period   of   history   have   given  up  the 
discussion,  and  yet  the  question  remains  fresh  as  ever. 
Many  times  in  the  turmoils  and  struggles  of  our  lives 
we  seem  to  forget  the  question;  all  of  a  sudden,  some 
one  dies;  one,  perhaps,  whom  we  loved,  one  near  and 
dear  to  our   hearts  is   snatched   away  from  us.     The 
struggle,  the  din  and  turmoil  of  the  world  around  us, 
cease  for  a  moment,  become  silent,  and  the  soul  asks 
the  old  question,  "  What  after  this  ?  "     What  becomes 

[331] 


232  IMMORTALITY. 

of  the  soul  ?  All  human  knowledge  proceeds  out  of 
experience;  we  cannot  know  anything  except  by  expe- 
rience. All  our  reasoning  is  based  upon  generalised 
experience,  all  our  knowledge  is  but  a  sort  of  harmon- 
ised experience.  Looking  around  us,  what  do  we  find? 
A  continuous  change.  The  plant  comes  out  of  the 
seed,  and  the  seed  becomes  the  plant  again;  the  plant 
grows  into  the  tree,  completes  the  circle,  and  comes 
back  to  the  seed.  The  animal  comes,  lives  a  certain 
time,  dies,  and  completes  the  circle.  So  does  man. 
The  mountains  slowly  but  surely  crumble  away,  the 
rivers  slowly  but  surely  dry  up,  rains  come  out  of  the 
sea,  and  go  back  to  the  sea.  Everywhere  it  is  circles 
being  completed,  birth,  growth,  development,  and 
decay  following  each  other  with  mathematical  preci- 
sion. This  is  our  every  day  experience.  Inside  of  it 
all,  behind  all  this  vast  mass  of  what  we  call  life,  of 
millions  of  forms  and  shapes,  millions  upon  millions  of 
varieties,  beginning  from  the  lowest  atom  to  the 
highest  spiritualised  man,  we  find  existing  a  certain 
unity.  Every  day  we  find  that  the  wall  that  was 
thought  to  be  dividing  one  substance  and  another  is 
being  broken  down,  and  all  matter  is  coming  to  be 
recognised  by  modern  science  as  one  substance,  m.ani- 
festing  in  different  ways  and  in  various  forms  the  one 
life  that  runs  like  a  continuous  chain  throughout,  of 
which  all  these  various  forms  represent  the  links,  link 
after  link,  extending  almost  infinitely,  but  of  the  same 
one  chain.  This  is  what  is  called  evolution.  It  is  an 
old,  old  idea,  as  old  as  human  society,  only  it  is  getting 


IMMORTALITY.  233 

fresher  and  fresher  as  human  knowledge  is  going  on. 
There  is  one  thing  more,  which  the  ancients  perceived, 
and  that  is  involution;  but  in  modern  times,  this  is  not 
yet  so  clearly  perceived.  The  seed  is  becoming  the 
plant;  a  grain  of  sand  never  becomes  a  plant.  It  is 
the  father  that  becomes  the  child.  A  lump  of  clay 
never  becomes  the  child.  Out  of  what  this  evolution 
comes  is  the  question.  What  was  the  seed  ?  It  was 
the  same  as  the  tree.  All  the  possibilities  of  a  future 
tree  are  in  that  seed;  all  the  possibilities  of  a  future 
man  are  in  the  little  baby;  all  the  possibilities  of  any 
future  life  are  in  the  germ.  What  is  this  ?  The  ancient 
philosophers  of  India  called  it  involution.  We  find 
then,  that  every  evolution  presupposes  an  involution. 
Nothing  can  be  evolved  which  is  not  already  in.  Here 
again  modern  science  comes  to  our  help.  You  know 
by  mathematical  reasoning  that  the  sum-total  of  the 
energy  that  is  displayed  in  the  universe  is  the  same 
throughout.  You  cannot  take  away  one  atom  of  mat- 
ter or  one  foot-pound  of  force.  You  cannot  add  to 
the  universe  one  atom  of  matter  or  one  foot-pound  of 
force.  As  such,  evolution  did  not  come  out  of  zero, 
then,  where  it  comes  from  ?  It  came  in  involution 
before.  The  child  is  the  man  /evolved,  and  the  man 
is  the  child  <fvolved;  the  seed  is  the  tree  involved,  and 
the  tree  is  the  seed  evolved.  All  the  possibilities  of 
all  life  are  in  the  germ.  The  question  becomes  a  little 
clearer.  Add  to  it  the  first  idea  of  continuation  of 
life.  From  the  lowest  protoplasm  to  the  most  perfect 
human  being,  there  is  really  one  life.     Just  as  in  one 


234  IMMORTALITY. 

life  we  have  so  many  various  phases  of  expression,  the 
baby,  the  child,  the  young  man,  the  old  man  —  extend 
that  farther,  and  trace  the  baby  a  few  steps  back,  then 
back,  and  back,  until  you  come  to  the  protoplasm. 
Thus,  from  that  protoplasm  up  to  the  most  perfect  man 
we  get  one  continuous  life,  one  chain.  This  is  evolu- 
tion, but  we  have  seen  that  each  evolution  presupposes 
an  involution.  The  whole  of  this  life  which  slowly 
manifests  itself,  evolves  itself  from  the  protoplasm  to 
the  perfected  human  being,  the  incarnation  of  God  on 
earth,  the  whole  of  this  series  is  but  one  life,  and  the 
whole  of  this  manifestation  must  have  been  involved  in 
that  very  protoplasm.  This  whole  life,  this  very  god 
on  earth  was  involved  there,  and  only  slowly  comes 
out,  manifests  itself  slowly,  slowly,  slowly.  The  high- 
est expression  must  have  been  there  in  the  germ  state, 
in  minute  form;  therefore  this  one  force,  this  whole 
chain,  is  the  involution  of  what  ?  Of  that  cosmic  life 
which  is  everywhere.  This  one  mass  of  intelligence 
which  is  from  the  protoplasm  up  to  the  most  perfected 
man,  slowly  and  slowly  uncoils  itself.  What  was  it  ? 
It  was  a  part  of  the  cosmic  universal  intelligence  in- 
volved in  that  little  protoplasm  itself,  and  it  was  all 
there.  Not  that  it  grows.  Take  off  all  ideas  of 
growth  from  your  mind.  With  the  idea  of  growth  is 
associated  something  coming  from  outside,  something 
extraneous,  and  that  will  break  the  mathematical 
demonstration  that  the  cosmic  energy  is  the  same 
throughout.  It  can  never  grow.  It  was  there,  only, 
it  manifests  itself.     What  is  destruction  ?     Here  is  a 


IMMORTALITY.  235 

glass.  I  throw  it  on  the  ground,  and  it  breaks  to 
pieces.  "V^  hat  becomes  of  it  ?  It  becomes  fine.  What 
is  destruction  ?  The  gross  becoming  fine.  The  ele- 
ments, the  particles,  the  components,  the  materials, 
the  causes  are  combined,  and  become  this  effect  called 
the  glass.  They  go  back  to  their  causes,  and  this  is 
what  is  meant  by  destruction  —  going  back  to  the 
cause.  What  is  the  effect  ?  The  cause  manifested. 
There  is  no  essential  difference  between  the  effect  and 
the  cause.  Take  this  glass,  again.  Here  was  the  ma- 
terial, and  that  material  plus  the  will  of  the  manufac- 
turer, these  two  made  the  glass,  and  these  two  were  its 
causes,  and  are  present  in  it.  In  what  form  ?  Adhe- 
sion. If  the  force  were  not  here  each  particle  would 
fall  off.  What  has  become  of  the  effect  then  ?  It  is 
the  same  as  the  cause,  only  taking  a  different  form,  a 
different  composition.  When  the  cause  is  changed  and 
limited  and  condensed  for  a  time  or  space,  then  the 
very  cause  is  called  effect.  We  must  remember  this. 
Applying  it  to  our  idea  of  life  the  whole  of  the  manifes- 
tation of  this  one  series,  from  the  protoplasm  up  to 
the  most  perfect  man,  must  be  the  very  same  thing  as 
cosmic  life.  First  it  got  involved  and  became  finer, 
and  out  of  that  fine  something  which  was  the  cause,  it 
has  gone  on  evolving,  is  manifesting  itself,  becoming 
grosser.  But  the  question  of  immortality  is  not  set- 
tled here  still.  What  have  we  got  ?  We  get  this,  that 
everything  in  this  universe  is  indestructible.  There  is 
nothing  new;  there  will  be  nothing  new.  The  same 
series    of    manifestations    are    presenting  themselves 


236  IMMORTALITY. 

alternately,  like  a  wheel,  coming  up  and  down.  All 
motion  in  this  universe  is  in  the  form  of  waves,  suc- 
cessively rising  and  falling.  Systems  after  systems 
are  coming  out  of  the  finer  forms,  evolving  them- 
selves, taking  the  grosser  forms,  again  melting  down, 
as  it  were,  and  going  back  to  the  fine  forms.  Again 
they  rise  out  of  that,  rising  for  a  certain  period  and 
slowly  going  back  to  the  cause.  So  with  all  life. 
Each  manifestation  of  life  is  coming  up,  and  then 
going  back  again.  What  goes  down  ?  The  form. 
The  form  breaks  to  pieces,  but  the  same  form  comes 
up.  In  one  sense  the  body  even  is  immortal.  In  one 
sense  bodies  and  forms  even  are  eternal.  How  ?  Sup- 
pose we  take  a  number  of  dice,  and  throw  them. 
Suppose  the  dice  fall  in  this  ratio  —  6-5-3-4.  We  take 
the  dice  up  and  throw  them  again,  and  again,  and 
again;  there  must  come  a  time  when  the  same  number 
will  fall  again;  the  same  combination  must  come. 
Again  let  them  fall,  and  the  same  combination  comes, 
but  after  a  long  while.  Now  each  particle,  each  atom, 
that  is  in  this  universe  I  take  for  such  a  die,  and  these 
are  being  thrown  out,  and  combined,  again  and  again. 
This  is  one  combination;  all  these  forms  before  you. 
Here  is  the  form  of  a  glass,  a  table,  a  pitcher  of  water, 
all  these  things.  This  is  one  combination;  the  next 
moment  it  will  all  break.  But  there  must  come  a 
time  when  exactly  the  same  combination  comes  again, 
when  you  will  be  here,  and  this  form  will  be  here,  this 
subject  will  be  talked,  and  this  pitcher  will  be  here. 
An   infinite   number  of   times   this   has  been,  and  an 


IMMORTALITY.  237 

infinite  number  of  times  will  be  repeated.  Thus  far 
with  the  physical  forms.  What  do  we  find?  That 
even  the  combination  of  physical  forms  is  eternally 
repeated. 

A  most  interesting^  question  that  comes  along  with 
this  particle  repetition,  is  the  explanation  of  all  such 
questions  as  this.  Some  of  you,  perhaps,  have  seen  a 
man  who  can  read  the  past  life  of  another  man,  and 
foretell  the  life  of  the  future.  How  is  it  possible  for 
anyone  to  see  what  the  future  will  be,  until  there  is  a 
regulated  future?  Effects  of  the  past  will  recur  in  the 
future,  and  we  see  that  is  so.  But  that  does  not  affect 
the  soul.  Think  of  one  of  these  big  Ferris  wheels  in 
Chicago.  These  wheels  are  going  on,  and  the  little 
rooms  in  the  wheel  are  regularly  coming  one  after  the 
other,  one  set  of  persons  gets  into  these,  and  after  they 
have  gone  round  the  circle  they  get  out,  and  a  fresh 
batch  of  people  get  in.  Each  one  of  these  batches  is 
like  one  of  these  manifestations,  from  the  lowest  ani- 
mal to  the  highest  man.  This  is  the  circular  chain  of 
the  Ferris  wheel  of  nature ;  gigantic,  infinite,  and  each 
one  of  the  bodies  or  forms  is  one  of  these  little  houses 
or  boxes,  and  fresh  batches  of  souls  are  riding  in  them, 
and  going  up  higher  and  higher  until  they  become  per- 
fect, and  come  out  of  the  wheel.  But  the  wheel  goes 
on,  ready  for  others.  And  so  long  as  the  body  is  in 
the  wheel,  it  can  be  absolutely  and  mathematically 
foretold  where  it  will  go,  but  not  of  the  soul.  There- 
fore it  is  possible  to  read  the  past  and  the  future  of 
nature  absolutely  and  mathematically.     We  come  to 


238  IMMORTALITY. 

this  that  there  is  -ecurrence  of  the  same  material  phe- 
nomena at  certain  periods,  that  the  same  combinations 
have  been  going  on  through  eternity.  But  that  is  not 
immortaHty  of  the  soul.  No  force  can  die,  no  matter 
can  be  annihilated.  What  becomes  of  it?  It  goes  on 
changing,  forward  and  backward,  until  it  comes  back 
to  the  source  from  which  it  came.  There  is  no  motion 
in  a  straight  line.  Everything  is  in  a  circle,  because  a 
straight  line,  infinitely  produced,  becomes  a  circle.  If 
that  is  the  case,  there  cannot  be  eternal  degeneration 
for  any  soul.  It  cannot  be.  Everything  must  com- 
plete the  circle,  and  come  back  to  its  source.  What 
are  you  and  I  and  all  these  souls?  As  we  have  seen 
in  our  discussion  of  evolution  and  involution,  you  and 
I  must  be  part  of  the  cosmic  consciousness,  cosmic 
life,  cosmic  mind,  which  get  involved,  and  we  must 
complete  the  circle  and  go  back  to  this  cosmic  intelli- 
gence which  is  God.  That  very  cosmic  intelligence  is 
what  the  people  call  Lord,  or  God,  or  Christ,  or  Bud- 
dha, or  Brahma,  whom  the  materialists  perceive  as  a 
force,  whom  the  agnostics  perceive  as  that  infinite, 
inexpressible  beyond.  This  is  that  infinite  cosmic 
life,  cosmic  intelligence,  cosmic  power,  and  we  are  all 
parts  of  that.  This  is  the  second  idea,  yet  this  is  not 
sufficient;  there  will  be  still  more  doubts.  It  is  very 
good  to  say  that  there  is  no  destruction  for  any  force. 
But  all  the  forces  that  we  see  are  combinations,  and  all 
the  forms  that  we  see  are  combinations.  This  form  is 
a  composition  of  several  component  parts,  and  so  every 
force  that  we  see  is  similarly  composite.     If  you  take 


IMMORTALITY.  239 

the  scientific  idea  of  force,  and  call  it  the  sum-total, 
the  resultant  of  several  forces,  what  becomes  of  your 
individuality?  Everything  that  is  compound  must 
sooner  or  later  get  back  to  its  component  parts. 
Whatever  in  this  universe  is  the  result  of  the  combina- 
tion of  matter  or  force,  whatever  is  the  result  of  com- 
bination, must  sooner  or  later  get  back  to  its  compo- 
nents. Whatever  is  the  result  of  certain  causes  must 
die,  be  destroyed.  It  gets  dispersed,  broken  up, 
resolved  back  into  its  components.  Soul  is  not  a 
force ;  neither  is  it  thought.  It  is  the  manufacturer  of 
thought,  but  not  thought ;  it  is  the  manufacturer  of 
the  body,  but  not  the  body.  Why  so?  We  see  that 
the  body  cannot  be  the  soul.  Why?  Because  it  is 
not  intelligent,  A  dead  man  is  not  intelligent,  or  a 
piece  of  flesh  in  a  butcher's  shop.  WHiat  do  we  mean 
by  intelligence?  That  reactive  power.  We  want  to 
go  a  little  more  deeply  into  it.  Here  is  a  pitcher ;  I 
see  it.  What  happens?  Rays  of  light  from  the 
pitcher  enter  my  eyes ;  they  make  a  picture  in  my 
retinae,  and  that  impression  comes  to  the  brain.  Yet 
there  is  no  vision.  What  the  physiologists  call  the 
sensory  nerves  carry  this  impression  inward.  But  up 
to  this  there  is  no  reaction.  The  nerve  centre  in  the 
brain  must  carry  the  impression  to  the  mind,  and  the 
mind  reacts,  and  as  soon  as  this  comes,  the  pitcher 
flashes  before  it.  To  make  it  more  clear,  and  give  it 
rather  a  commonplace  example ;  suppose  you  are  lis- 
tening to  me  intently,  and  a  mosquita  is  sitting  on  the 
tip  of  your  nose,  and  giving  you  that  pleasant  sensa- 


240  IMMORTALITY. 

tion  which  mosquitoes  can  give;  but  you  are  so  intent 
on  hearing  me  that  you  do  not  feel  the  mosquito  at  all. 
What  has  happened  ?  The  mosquito  has  bitten  a  cer- 
tain part  of  your  skin,  and  certain  nerves  are  there. 
They  have  carried  a  certain  sensation  into  the  brain, 
and  the  impression  is  there,  but  the  mind,  being  other- 
wise occupied,  does  not  react,  so  you  are  not  aware  of 
the  presence  of  the  mosquito.  When  a  new  impression 
comes  in,  if  the  mind  does  not  react,  we  will  not  be 
conscious  of  it,  but  when  comes  the  reaction,  along  with 
that  will  come  the  consciousness,  and  we  feel,  we  see, 
or  we  hear,  and  so  forth.  With  this  reaction  comes 
illumination,  as  the  Sdtikhya  philosophers  call  it.  We 
see  that  the  body  cannot  illuminate,  because  we  see 
that  in  one  case  I  did  not  feel,  my  attention  was  not 
there,  I  did  not  feel  the  sensation  at  all.  Cases  have 
been  known  where,  under  certain  conditions,  a  man 
who  had  never  learned  a  particular  language,  was 
found  able  to  speak  that  language.  Subsequent  in- 
quiries proved  that  the  man  had,  when  a  child,  lived 
among  people  who  spoke  that  language,  and  the 
impressions  were  left  on  his  brain.  These  impressions 
remained  stored  up  there,  until  through  some  cause 
the  mind  reacted,  and  illumination  came,  and  then  the 
man  was  able  to  speak  the  language.  This  shows  that 
the  mind  alone  is  not  sufficient,  that  the  mind  itself  is 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  some  one.  In  the  case 
of  that  boy  the  mind  was  full  of  that  language,  yet  he 
did  not  know  it,  but  later  there  came  a  time  when  he 
did.     It  shows  that  there  is  someone  besides  the  mind, 


IMMORTALITY.  24I 

and  when  the  boy  was  a  baby  that  someone  did  not  use 
the  power,  but  when  he  grew  up,  took  advantage  of 
it,  and  used  it.  First,  here  is  the  body,  second  the 
mind,  or  instrument  of  thought,  and  third  behind  this 
mind  is  the  Self  of  man.  The  Sanskrit  word  is  Atman. 
As  modern  philosophers  have  identified  thought  with 
molecular  changes  in  the  brain  they  do  not  know  how 
to  explain  such  a  case,  and  they  generally  deny  it. 
The  mind  is  intimately  connected  with  the  brain,  and 
dies  every  time  the  body  changes.  Self  is  the  illumi- 
nator, and  the  mind  is  the  instrument  in  its  hands,  and 
through  that  instrument  it  gets  hold  of  the  external 
instrument,  and  thus  comes  perception.  The  external 
instrument  gets  hold  of  the  impression,  and  carries  it 
to  the  organs,  for  you  must  remember  always  that  the 
eyes  and  ears  are  only  receivers,  it  is  the  internal 
organs,  the  brain  centres  which  act.  In  Sanskrit  these 
centres  are  called  Indryias,  and  they  carry  sensations 
to  the  mind,  and  the  mind  presents  them  further  back 
to  other  states  of  the  mind,  which  in  Sanskrit  is  called 
Chitta^  and  there  they  are  organised  into  will,  and  all 
these  things,  which  place  it  before  the  King  of  Kings 
inside,  the  Ruler  on  His  throne,  the  Self  of  man.  He 
then  sees  and  gives  His  orders.  Then  the  mind  imme- 
diately acts  on  the  organs,  and  the  organs  on  the 
external  body.  The  real  Perceiver,  the  real  Ruler,  the 
Governor,  the  Creator,  the  Manipulator  of  all  this  is 
the  Self  of  man.  We  have  seen  then  that  this  Self  of 
man  is  not  the  body,  and  it  is  not  thought.  Neither 
body  nor  thought.  It  cannot  be  a  compound.  Why 
16 


242  IMMORTALITY. 

not  ?  Because  everything  that  is  a  compound  we  must 
either  see  or  imagine.  That  which  we  cannot  imagine 
or  perceive,  that  which  we  cannot  bind  together,  that 
is  not  force  or  matter,  cause  or  effect,  or  causation, 
cannot  be  a  compound.  The  power  of  compound  is  so 
far  as  our  mental  universe,  our  thought  universe,  takes 
us.  Beyond  this  it  does  not  hold  good.  It  is  as  far 
as  law  will  take  it,  and  if  it  is  anything  beyond  law,  it 
cannot  be  a  compound  at  all.  I  think  that  is  easy 
enough  to  you,  yet  I  will  be  more  explicit.  You  see 
what  makes  a  compound.  This  glass  is  a  compound, 
in  which  the  causes  have  combined  and  become  the 
effect.  So  these  compound  things  can  be  only  within 
the  circle  of  the  law  of  causation,  so  far  as  the  rules  of 
cause  and  effect  go,  so  far  can  we  have  compounds  and 
combinations.  Beyond  that  it  is  impossible  to  talk  of 
combinations,  because  no  law  holds  good  therein. 
Beyond  this  they  do  not  hold  good,  and  law  holds  good 
only  in  that  universe  which  we  see,  feel,  hear,  imagine, 
dream,  and  beyond  that  we  cannot  place  any  law,  the 
idea  of  law  does  not  hold  good  beyond  that.  We  have 
seen,  too,  that  that  is  our  universe  which  we  sense,  or 
imagine,  and  we  sense  what  is  in  our  direct  percep- 
tion, and  we  imagine  what  is  in  our  mind,  therefore 
what  is  beyond  the  body,  is  beyond  the  senses,  and 
what  is  beyond  the  mind  is  beyond  the  imagination, 
and  therefore  is  beyond  our  universe.  Therefore  be- 
yond the  law  of  causation,  is  the  free  ruler,  the  Self. 
Therefore  the  Self  rules  everything  that  is  within  the 
law.     This   Self   of   man   goes   beyond   the  law,   and 


IMMORTALITY.  243 

therefore  must  be  free,  cannot  be  any  composition,  or 
the  result  of  any  composition,  or  the  effect  of  any 
cause.  It  will  never  die,  because  death  is  going  back 
to  the  component  parts,  and  that  which  was  never  a 
compound  can  never  die.  It  will  be  sheer  nonsense  to 
say  it  dies.     It  does  not  end  here. 

We  are  now  treading  on  finer  and  finer  gro'und. 
Some  of  you  perhaps  will  be  frightened;  we  are  tread- 
ing on  very  delicate  ground.  We  have  seen  that  this 
Self,  being  beyond  the  little  universe  of  matter  and 
force  and  thought,  is  a  simple,  and  as  a  simple  it  can- 
not die,  neither  can  it  live.  That  which  does  not  die, 
cannot  live  also.  So,  what  is  death  ?  The  obverse, 
and  life  the  reverse  of  the  same  coin.  Life  is  another 
name  for  death,  and  death  for  life.  One  particular 
mode  of  manifestation  is  what  we  call  life;  another 
particular  mode  of  manifestation  of  the  same  thing  is 
what  we  call  death.  When  the  wave  rises  on  the  top 
it  is  life;  falls  into  the  hollow  and  is  death.  If  any- 
thing is  beyond  death,  we  naturally  see  it  must  also  be 
beyond  life.  I  must  remind  you  of  the  first  conclu- 
sion, that  this  soul  of  man  is  one  part  of  the  cosmic 
energy  that  exists,  one  part  of  God.  We  now  come  to 
find  that  it  is  beyond  life  and  death.  You  were  never 
born,  and  you  will  never  die.  What  is  this  birth  and 
death  that  we  see  ?  This  belongs  to  the  body,  because 
soul  is  omnipresent.  How  is  that  ?  We  are  so  many 
people  sitting  here,  and  you  say  the  soul  is  omnipres- 
ent. What  is  there  to  limit  anything  that  is  beyond 
law,  beyond   causation  ?     This  glass   is   limited;  it  is 


244  IMMORTALITY. 

not  omnipresent,  because  the  surrounding  matter  forces 
it  down  to  that  form,  does  not  allow  it  to  expand.  It 
is  conditioned  by  everything  around  it;  therefore  it  is 
limited.  But  that  which  is  beyond  law,  where  there  is 
nobody  to  act  upon  it,  how  can  that  be  limited  ?  It 
must  be  omnipresent.  You  are  everywhere  in  the 
universe.  How  is  it  then  that  I  am  born  and  I  am 
going  to  die,  and  all  that  ?  That  is  the  talk  of  ignor- 
ance, hallucinations  of  the  brain.  You  were  neither 
born,  nor  will  die.  You  have  had  neither  birth,  nor 
will  have  rebirth,  nor  life,  nor  incarnation,  nor  any- 
thing. What  do  you  mean  by  coming  and  going  !  All 
shallow  nonsense.  You  are  everywhere.  Then  what  is 
this  coming  and  going  ?  It  is  a  hallucination  produced 
by  the  change  of  this  fine  body,  what  you  call  the  mind. 
That  is  going  on.  Just  a  little  speck  of  cloud  passing 
before  the  sky.  As  it  moves  on  and  on,  it  may  create 
the  delusion  that  the  sky  moves.  Sometimes  you  see 
a  cloud  moving  before  the  moon,  and  you  think  the 
moon  is  moving.  But  it  is  the  cloud.  When  you  are 
in  a  train  you  see  that  the  land  is  flying,  or  when  you 
are  in  a  boat,  you  think  the  water  moves.  In  reality 
you  are  neither  going  nor  coming,  nor  born,  or  going 
to  be  born,  you  are  infinite,  ever-present,  beyond  sl^ 
causation,  ever  free,  never  born,  and  never  die,  SucI' 
a  question  is  out  of  place;  such  a  question  is  arrai  « 
nonsense  to  ask.  Because  there  was  no  birtli;  ho 
could  there  be  any  mortality  ?  You  are  the  omnipra 
ent  beings  of  the  universe. 

One  step  more  we  will  have  to  go  to  get  a  logioi 


IMMORTALITY.  245 

conclusion.  There  is  no  half  way  house.  You  are 
metaphysicians,  and  there  is  no  crying  quarter.  If 
then  we  are  beyond  all  law,  we  must  be  omniscient, 
ever  blessed,  all  knowledge  must  be  in  us,  and  all 
power  and  all  blessedness.  Certainly.  You  are  the 
omniscient,  omnipresent  being  of  the  universe.  But 
of  such  beings  can  there  be  many  ?  Can  there  be  a 
hundred  thousand  millions  of  omnipresent  beings  ? 
Certainly  there  cannot  be.  Then  what  becomes  of  all 
of  us  ?  You  are  only  one;  there  is  only  one  such  Self, 
and  that  one  Self  is  you.  Standing  behind  this  little 
nature  is  what  we  call  the  soul.  There  is  one  only 
Being,  one  only  existence,  the  ever  blessed,  the  omni- 
present, the  omniscient,  the  birthless,  the  deathless. 
*'  Through  His  control  the  sky  expands,  through  His 
control  the  air  breathes,  through  His  control  the  sun 
shines,  all  lives  are."  And  He  is  the  background  of 
nature.  He  is  the  Reality  that  is  in  nature.  He  is  the 
background  of  your  soul.  Not  only  so,  but  you  are 
He.  You  are  one  with  Him.  Whenever  there  are 
two,  there  is  fear,  there  is  danger,  there  is  conflict, 
there  is  strife.  When  it  is  all  One,  whom  to  hate, 
with  whom  to  struggle,  when  it  is  all  He,  with  whom  to 
fight  ?  This  explains  the  nature  of  life.  This  explains 
the  nature  of  being.  This  is  perfection,  and  this  is  God. 
As  long  as  you  see  the  many,  you  are  under  delusion. 
"In  this  world  of  many,  he  who  sees  that  One  in  this  ever 
changing  world,  he  who  sees  Him  who  never  changes  as 
the  Soul  of  his  own  soul,  his  existence,  his  own  Self,  he 
is  free,  he  is  blessed,  he  has  reached  the  goal."     There- 


246  IMMORTALITY. 

fore  known  that  thou  art  He;  thou  art  the  God  of  this 
universe,  tat  tvain  ast,  and  all  these  various  ideas  that 
"I  am  a  man, '  'or  a  woman,  or  sick  or  healthy,  or  strong, 
or  weak,  or  I  hate,  or  I  love,  or  have  a  little  power,  or 
more  power,  are  but  hallucinations.  Away  with  them  ! 
What  makes  you  weak  ?  What  makes  you  fear  ?  You 
are  the  one  being  in  the  universe.  What  frightens 
you  ?  Stand  then  and  be  free.  Know  that  every 
thought  and  word  that  weakens  in  this  world  is  the 
only  evil  that  exists.  Whatever  makes  men  weak, 
makes  men  fear,  is  the  only  evil  that  should  be 
shunned.  What  can  frighten  you  ?  If  the  suns  come 
down,  the  moons  crumble  into  dust,  systems  after  sys- 
tems are  hurled  into  annihilation,  what  is  that  to  you  ? 
Stand  as  a  rock;  you  are  indestructible.  You  are  the 
Self,  the  God  of  the  universe.  **  I  am  Existence 
Absolute^ — Bliss  Absolute, —  Knowledge  Absolute,  I 
am  He."  Say  that,  and  as  the  lion  breaks  the  little 
cage  of  bullrushes  and  comes  out,  so  break  this  chain 
and  be  free  for  ever.  What  frightens  you,  what  holds 
you  down  ?  It  is  only  ignorance  and  delusion;  noth- 
ing else  can  bind  you.  You  are  the  pure  One,  the 
ever  blessed. 

Silly  fools  tell  you,  you  are  sinners,  and  sit  down  in 
a  corner  and  weep.  Foolishness,  wickedness,  down- 
right rascality  to  say  you  are  sinners  !  You  are  all 
God.  See  you  not  God  and  call  it  man  ?  Therefore 
if  you  dare,  stand  on  that, —  mould  your  whole  life  on 
that.  If  a  man  cuts  your  throat  do  not  say  no,  for 
you  are  cutting  your  own  throat.     When  you  help  a 


IMMORTALITY.  247 

poor  man,  do  not  feel  the  least  pride.  That  is  wor- 
ship for  you,  and  not  the  cause  of  pride.  Is  not  the 
whole  universe  you  ?  Where  is  there  anyone  that  is 
not  you  ?  You  are  the  soul  of  this  universe.  You  are 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  it  is  you  that  is  shining  in 
the  land.  The  whole  universe  is  you.  Whom  are  you 
going  to  hate,  or  to  fight  ?  Know  then  that  thou  art 
He,  and  model  your  whole  life  according  to  that,  and 
he  who  knows  this  and  models  his  life  according  to  it, 
will  no  more  grovel  in  darkness. 


BHAKTI-YOGA 


BY 


SWAMl    VIVEKANANDA 
I249] 


BHAKTI-YOGA 


**  He  is  the  Soul  of  the  Universe  ;  He  is  immortal  ;  His  is  the 
Rulership  ;  He  is  the  All-Knowing,  the  All-Pervading,  the 
Protector  of  the  Universe,  the  Eternal  Ruler.  None  else  is 
there  efficient  to  govern  the  World  eternally.  He  who  at 
the  beginning  of  creation  projected  Brahmd  {i.  e.,  the  uni- 
versal consciousness),  and  Who  delivered  the  Vedas  unto 
him  —  seeking  liberation  I  go  for  refuge  unto  that  Effulgent 
One  Whose  light  turns  the  understanding  towards  the 
Atman.*' — S'wetds'vatara-Upanishad^  VI.  17 — 18. 


Definition  of  Bhakti. 

Bhakti-yoga  is  a  genuine,  real  search  after  the 
Lord,  a  search  beginning,  continuing  and  ending 
in  Love.  One  single  moment  of  the  madness  of  ex- 
treme love  to  God  brings  us  eternal  freedom. 
''Bhakti,''  says  Narada  in  his  explanation  of  the 
Bhakti- Aphortsfns,  "is  intense  love  to  God." — "When 
a  man  gets  it  he  loves  all,  hates  none;  he  becomes 
satisfied  forever." —  "  This  love  cannot  be  reduced  to 
any  earthly  benefit,"  because  as  long  as  worldly  desires 
last  that  kind  of  love  does  not  come.  "  Bhakti  is 
greater  than  Karma,  greater  than  Yoga,  because  these 
are  intended  for  an  object  m  view,  while  Bhakti  \^  its 
own  fruition,  its  own  means  and  its  own  end." 

[251] 


252  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

BhaktthdiS  been  the  one  constant  theme  of  our  sages. 
Apart  from  the  special  writers  on  Bhakti^  such  as  San- 
dilya  or  Narada,  the  great  commentators  on  the  Vydsa- 
SUtraSy  evidently  advocates  of  Knowledge  (Jndna)^ 
have  also  something  very  suggestive  to  say  about 
Love.  Even  when  the  commentator  is  anxious  to 
explain  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  texts  so  as  to  make 
them  import  a  sort  of  dry  knowledge,  the  siltras^  in  the 
chapter  on  worship  especially,  do  not  lend  themselves 
to  be  easily  manipulated  in  that  fashion. 

There  is  not  really  so  much  difference  between  Knowl- 
edge {J^ndna)  and  Love  {Bhakti)  as  people  sometimes 
imagine.  We  shall  see  as  we  go  on  that  in  the  end  they 
converge  and  meet  at  the  same  point.  So  also  it  is 
with  Rdja-yoga^  which,  when  pursued  as  a  means  to 
attain  liberation,  and  not  (as  unfortunately  it  fre- 
quently becomes  in  the  hands  of  charlatans  and  mys- 
tery-mongers) as  an  instrument  to  hoodwink  the 
unwary,  leads  us  also  to  the  same  goal. 

The  one  great  advantage  of  Bhakti  is  that  it  is  the 
easiest,  and  the  most  natural  way  to  reach  the  great 
divine  end  in  view;  its  great  disadvantage  is  that  in  its 
lower  forms  it  oftentimes  degenerates  into  hideous 
fanaticism.  The  fanatical  crew  in  Hinduism,  or 
Mahomedanism,  or  Christianity,  have  always  been 
almost  exclusively  recruited  from  these  worshippers 
on  the  lower  planes  of  Bhakti.  That  singleness  of 
attachment  (Nishthd)  to  a  loved  object,  without  which 
no  genuine  love  can  grow,  is  very  often  also  the  cause 
of  the  denunciation  of  everything  else.     All  the  weak 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  253 

and  undeveloped  minds  in  any  religion  or  country  have 
only  one  way  of  loving  their  own  ideal,  /.  <r.,  by  hating 
every  other  ideal.  Herein  is  the  explanation  of  why 
the  same  man  who  is  so  lovingly  attached  to  his  own 
ideal  of  God,  so  devoted  to  his  own  ideal  of  religion, 
becomes  a  howling  fanatic  as  soon  as  he  sees  or  hears 
any  thing  of  any  other  ideal.  This  kind  of  love  is 
somewhat  like  the  canine  instinct  of  guarding  the  mas 
ter's  property  from  intrusion;  only  even  the  dog's  in- 
stinct is  better  than  the  reason  of  man,  for  the  dog 
never  mistakes  its  master  for  an  enemy  in  whatever 
dress  he  may  come  before  it.  Again  the  fanatic  loses 
all  power  of  judgment.  Personal  considerations  are  in 
his  case  of  such  absorbing  interest  that  to  him  it  is  no 
question  at  all  what  a  man  says  —  whether  it  is  right 
or  wrong;  but  the  one  thing  he  is  always  particularly 
careful  to  know  is,  who  says  it.  The  same  man  who 
is  kind,  good,  honest,  and  loving,  to  people  of  his  own 
opinion  will  not  hesitate  to  do  the  vilest  deeds,  when 
they  are  directed  against  persons  beyond  the  pale  of 
his  own  religious  brotherhood. 

But  this  danger  exists  only  in  that  stage  of  Bhakti 
which  is  called  the  preparatory  (gauni).  When  Bhakti 
has  become  ripe  and  has  passed  into  that  form  which 
is  called  the  supreme  (para)  no  more  is  there  any  fear  of 
these  hideous  manifestations  of  fanaticism;  that  soul 
which  is  overpowered  by  this  higher  form  of  Bhakti  is 
too  near  the  God  of  Love  to  become  an  instrument  for 
the  diffusion  of  hatred. 

It  is  not  given  to  all  of  us  to  be  harmonious  in  the 


254  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

building  up  of  our  characters  in  this  life:  yet  we  know 
that  that  character  is  of  the  noblest  type  in  which  all 
these  three  —  knowledge  and  love  3.nd  yoga  —  are  har- 
moniously fused.  Three  things  are  necessary  for  a 
bird  to  fly  —  the  two  wings  and  the  tail  as  a  rudder  for 
steering,  y^idna  (knowledge)  is  the  one  wing,  Bhakti 
(love)  is  the  other,  and  Yoga  is  the  tail  that  keeps  up 
the  balance.  For  those  who  cannot  pursue  all  these 
three  forms  of  worship  together  in  harmony,  and  take 
up,  therefore,  Bhakti  3.\onQ  as  their  way,  it  is  necessary 
always  to  remember  that  forms  and  ceremonials, 
though  absolutely  necessary  for  the  progressive  soul, 
have  no  other  value  than  taking  us  on  to  that  state  in 
which  we  feel  the  most  intense  love  to  God. 

There  is  a  little  difference  in  opinion  between  the 
teachers  of  Knowledge  and  those  of  Love,  though 
both  admit  the  power  of  Bhakti.  The  Jfidnins  hold 
Bhakti  to  be  an  instrument  of  liberation,  the  Bhaktas 
look  upon  it  both  as  the  instrument  and  the  thing  to  be 
attained.  To  my  mind  this  is  a  distinction  without 
much  difference.  In  fact,  Bhakti^  when  used  as  an 
instrument,  really  means  a  lower  form  of  worship,  and 
the  higher  form  becomes  inseparable  from  the  lower 
form  of  realisation  at  a  later  stage.  Each  seems  to  lay 
a  great  stress  upon  his  own  peculiar  method  of  wor- 
ship, forgetting  that  with  perfect  love  true  knowledge 
is  bound  to  come  even  unsought,  and  that  from  perfect 
knowledge  true  love  is  inseparable. 

Bearing  this  in  mind  let  us  try  to  understand  what 
the  great  Vedantic  comm.entators  have  to  say  on  the 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  255 

subject.  In  explaining  the  Sdtra  Avrittirasakridupadeidi 
Bhagavan  Sankara  says: — "Thus  people  say, —  'He 
is  devoted  to  the  king, —  He  is  devoted  to  the  Guru  ; 
they  say  this  of  him  who  follows  his  Guru^  and  does  so, 
having  that  following  as  the  one  end  in  view.'  Simi- 
larly they  say  —  'The  loving  wife  meditates  on  her 
loving  husband;  *  here  also  a  kind  of  eager  and  con- 
tinuous remembrance  is  meant."  This  is  devotion 
according  to  Sankara. 

"  Meditation  again  is  a  constant  remembrance  (of 
the  thing  meditated  upon)  flowing  like  an  unbroken 
stream  of  oil  poured  out  from  one  vessel  to  another. 
When  this  kind  of  remembering  has  been  attained  (in 
relation  to  God)  all  bondages  break.  Thus  it  is  spoken 
of  in  the  scriptures  regarding  constant  remembering 
as  a  means  to  liberation.  This  remembering  again  is 
of  the  same  form  as  seeing,  because  it  is  of  the  same 
meaning,  as  in  the  passage,  '  When  He  who  is  far  and 
near  is  seen  the  bonds  of  the  heart  are  broken,  all 
doubts  vanish,  and  all  effects  of  work  disappear.* 
(He  who  is  near  can  be  seen,  but  he  who  is  far  can 
only  be  remembered.  Nevertheless  the  scripture  says 
that  we  have  to  see  Him  who  is  near  as  well  as  Him 
who  is  far,  thereby  indicating  to  us  that  the  above 
kind  of  remembering  is  as  good  as  seeing.)  "  This 
remembrance  when  exalted  assumes  the  same  form  as 

seeing Worship  is  constant  remembering  as  may 

be  seen  from  the  essential  texts  of  scriptures.  Know- 
ing, which  is  the  same  as  repeated  worship,  has  been 
described  as    constant  remembering Thus  the 


2$6  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

memory,  which  has  attained  to  the  height  of  what  is  as 
good  as  direct  perception,  is  spoken  of  in  the  Sruii  as 
a  means  of  liberation.  '  This  Atmati  is  not  to  be 
reached  through  various  sciences,  nor  by  intellect,  nor 
by  much  study  of  the  Vedas.  Whomsoever  this  Atman 
desires  by  him  is  the  Atman  attained,  unto  him  this 
Atman  discovers  himself.'  Here  after  saying  that 
mere  hearing,  thinking,  and  meditating  are  not  the 
means  of  attaining  this  Atman,  it  is  said,  '  Whom  this 
Atman  desires  by  him  the  Atman  is  attained.'  The 
extremely  beloved  is  desired;  by  whomsoever  this 
Atman  is  extremely  beloved,  he  becomes  the  most 
beloved  of  the  Atman.  So  that  this  beloved  may 
attain  the  Atman,  the  Lord  himself  helps.  For  it  has 
been  said  by  the  Lord:  *  Those  who  are  constantly 
attached  to  me  and  worship  me  with  love  —  I  give  that 
direction  to  their  will  by  which  they  come  to  me.' 
Therefore  it  is  said  that,  to  whomsoever  this  remem- 
bering, which  is  of  the  same  form  as  direct  perception, 
is  very  dear,  because  it  is  dear  to  the  Object  of  such 
memory-perception,  he  is  desired  by  the  Supreme 
Atman,  by  him  the  Supreme  Atman  is  attained.  This 
constant  remembrance  is  denoted  by  the  word  Bhaktiy 

So  says  Bhagavdn  Rdmdnuja  in  his  commentary  on 
the  S^tra  Athato  Brahma  Jijnasa. 

In  commenting  on  the  Sutra  of  Patanjali  livara 
Pranidhatiddrd  —  i.  e.,  'By  the  worship  of  the  Su- 
preme Lord,' — Bhoja  says,  ''  Pratiidhdna  is  that 
sort  of  Bhakti  in  which,  without  seeking  results,  such 
as  sense-enjoyments,  etc.,  all  works  are  dedicated  to 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  257 

that  Teacher  of  teachers."  Also  Bhagavan  Vyasa, 
when  commenting  on  the  same,  defines  Franidhdna  as 
"  the  form  of  Bhakti  by  which  the  mercy  of  the 
Supreme  Lord  comes  to  \^q  yogin  and  blesses  him  by 
granting  him  his  desires."  According  to  Sandilya, 
''Bhakti  is  intense  Love  to  God."  The  best  defini- 
tion is,  however,  that  given  by  the  king  of  Bhaktas, 
Prahlada:  "  That  deathless  love  which  the  ignorant 
have  for  the  fleeting  objects  of  the  senses  —  as  I  keep 
meditating  on  Thee  —  may  not  that  (sort  of  intense) 
love  (for  Thee)  slip  away  from  my  heart."  Love!  For 
whom  ?  For  the  Supreme  Lord  Uvara.  Love  for  any 
other  being,  however  great,  can  not  be  Bahkti ;  for,  as 
Ramanuja  says  in  his  iri  Bhdshya  quoting  an  ancient 
Achdrya,  i.  e.^  a  great  teacher.  "  From  Brahma  to  a 
clump  of  grass  all  things  that  live  in  the  world  are 
slaves  of  birth  and  death  caused  by  Karma;  therefore 
they  cannot  be  helpful  as  objects  of  meditation,  because 
they  are  all  in  ignorance  and  subject  to  change."  In 
commenting  on  the  word  anurakti  \isq6.  by  Sandilya, 
the  commentator  Svapneivara  says  that  it  means  anu^ 
after,  and  rakti,  attachment;  /.  ^.,  the  attachment 
which  comes  after  the  knowledge  of  the  nature  and 
glory  of  God;  else  a  blind  attachment  to  any  one, 
€.  g.^\.o  wife  or  children  would  be  Bhakti.  We  plainly 
see,  therefore,  that  Bhakti  is  a  series  or  succession  of 
mental  efforts  at  religious  realisation  beginning  with 
ordinary  worship  and  ending  in  supremely  intense  lov© 
for  the  fivara. 


258  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

The  Philosophy  of  Isvara. 

Who  is  fivara'^. — ''From  Whom  is  the  birth,  con* 
tinuation  and  dissolution  of  the  universe,"  —  He 
is  I'ivara —  "  the  Eternal,  the  Pure,  the  Ever  Free, 
the  Almighty,  the  All-Knowing,  the  All-Merciful,  the 
Teacher  of  all  teachers;"  and  above  all  —  "He, 
the  Lord  is,  of  His  own  nature,  inexpressible  Love." 

These  certainly  are  the  definitions  of  a  personal 
God.  Are  there  then  two  Gods  ?  The  "  Not  this, 
Not  this,"  the  Satchit-dnanda^  the  Existence-Knowl- 
edge-Bliss, of  the  philosopher,  and  this  God  of  Love 
of  the  Bhakta  ?  No,  it  is  the  same  Satchit-dnanda  who 
is  also  the  God  of  Love,  the  impersonal  and  personal 
in  one.  It  has  always  to  be  understood  that  the  per- 
sonal God  worshipped  by  the  Bhakta  is  not  separate 
or  different  from  the  Brahman.  All  is  Brahmaii^  the 
One  without  a  second :  only  the  Brahma?i^  as  unity  or 
absolute,  is  too  much  of  an  abstraction  to  be  loved  and 
worshipped;  so  the  Bhakta  chooses  the  relative  aspect 
of  Brahman,  that  is,  livara,  the  Supreme  Ruler.  To 
use  a  simile:  Brahi7ia7i  is  as  the  clay  or  substance  out 
of  which  an  infinite  variety  of  articles  are  fashioned. 
As  clay,  they  are  all  one ;  but  form  or  manifestation 
differentiates  them.  Before  ever  one  of  them  was 
made,  they  all  existed  potentially  in  the  clay;  and,  of 
course,  they  are  identical  substantially;  but  when 
formed,  and  so  long  as  the  form  remains,  they  are 
separate  and  different;  the  clay-mouse  can  never  be- 
come a  clay-elephant,  because,  as  manifestations,  form 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  259 

alone  makes  them  what  they  are,  though  as  unformed 
clay  they  are  all  one.  fivara  is  the  highest  manifes- 
tation of  the  absolute  reality,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
highest  possible  reading  of  the  Absolute  by  the  human 
mind.     Creation  is  eternal,  and  so  also  is  livara. 

In  the  iQ)MX\.\v  pdda  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  Sdfras^ 
after  stating  the  almost  infinite  power  and  knowledge 
which  will  come  to  the  liberated  soul  after  the  attain- 
ment of  Moksha^  Vyasa  makes  the  remark,  in  an  aphor- 
ism, that  none,  however,  will  get  the  power  of  creating, 
ruling,  and  dissolving  the  universe,  because  that  be- 
longs to  God  alone.  In  explaining  the  Siltra  it  is  eas} 
for  the  dualistic  commentators  to  shew  how  it  is  ever 
impossible  for  a  subordinate  soul,  ytva,  to  have  the 
infinite  power  and  total  independence  of  God.  The 
thorough  dualistic  commentator  Madhvdchdrya  deals 
with  this  passage  in  his  usual  summary  method  by 
quoting  a  verse  from  the  Vardha-Purdna. 

In  explaining  this  aphorism  the  commentator,  Rdtn- 
dnuja,  says:  —  This  doubt  being  raised,  whether  among 
the  powers  of  the  liberated  souls  is  included  that  unique 
power  of  the  Supreme  One,  that  is,  of  creation,  etc., 
of  the  universe  and  even  the  Lordship  of  all,  or 
whether,  without  that,  the  glory  of  the  liberated  con- 
sists only  in  the  direct  perception  of  the  Supreme  One, 
we  get  as  an  argument  the  following:  It  is  reasonable 
that  the  liberated  get  the  Lordship  of  the  universe, 
because  the  scriptures  say,  *  He  attains  extreme  same- 
ness with  the  Pure  One,'  because,  as  the  scriptures 
say,  he  attains  to  extreme  sameness  with  the  Supreme 


26o  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

One  and  all  his  desires  are  realized.  Now  extreme 
sameness  and  realization  of  all  desires  cannot  be 
attained  without  the  unique  power  of  the  Supreme 
Lord,  namely  that  of  governing  the  universe.  There- 
fore, to  attain  the  realization  of  all  desires  and  the  ex- 
treme sameness  with  the  Supreme,  we  must  all  admit 
that  the  liberated  get  the  power  of  ruling  the  whole 
universe.  To  this  we  reply  that  the  liberated  get  all 
the  powers  except  that  of  ruling  the  universe.  Ruling 
the  universe  is  guiding  the  form  and  the  life  and  the 
desires  of  all  the  sentient  and  the  non-sentient  beings, 
excepting  the  liberated  ones  from  whom  all  that  veils 
His  true  nature  has  been  removed,  and  who  enjoy  the 
glory  of  the  unobstructed  perception  of  the  Brahman. 
This  is  proved  from  the  scriptural  text,  '  From  whom 
all  these  things  are  born,  by  whom  all  that  are  born 
live,  unto  whom  they,  departing,  return;  ask  about  It, 
That  is  Brahman.*  If  this  quality  of  ruling  the  uni- 
verse be  a  quality  common  even  to  the  liberated,  then 
this  text  would  not  apply  as  a  definition  of  Brahman^ 
defining  Him  through  His  rulership  of  the  universe. 
The  uncommon  alone  has  to  be  specially  defined; 
therefore, —  'My  beloved  boy,  alone,  in  the  beginning, 
there  existed  the  One  without  a  second.  That  saw 
and  felt  I  will  give  birth  to  the  many.  That  projected 
heat.' — ^  Brahjnan.,  indeed,  alone  existed  in  the  begin- 
ning. That  One  evolved.  That  projected  a  blessed 
form,  the  Kshatra.  All  these  gods  are  Kshatras : 
Varuna^  Soma^  Rudra^  Parja?iya^  Ya7?ia^  Mrityu^ 
hdna.' — 'Atman^   indeed,   existed   alone   in  the  begin' 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  261 

ning;  nothing  else  vibrated;  He,  seeing,  projected  the 
world;  He  projected  the  world  after.' —  'Alone  Ndrd- 
yana  existed;  neither  Brahmd  nor  liana^  nor  the 
Dydvd-Pritkzn,  nor  the  stars,  nor  water,  nor  fire,  nor 
Soma  nor  the  Sun.  He  did  not  take  pleasure  alone. 
He  after  His  meditation  had  one  daughter,  the  ten 
organs,  etc.,' — in  texts  like  these  and  others  as, — 
*  Who  living  in  the  earth  is  separate  from  the  earth, 
who  living  in  the  Atman,  etc.,'  the  ^rutis  speak  of  the 
Supreme  One  as  the  subject  of  the  work  of   ruling  the 

universe Nor  in  these  descriptions  of  the  ruling  of 

the  universe  is  there  any  position  of  the  liberated  soul 
by  which  such  a  soul  may  have  the  ruling  of  the 
universe  ascribed  to  it.  In  explaining  the  next  Siitrd^ 
Ramanuja  says,  "  If  you  say  it  is  not  so,  because  there 
are  direct  texts  in  the  Vedas  in  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary, these  texts  refer  to  the  glory  of  the  liberated  in 
the  spheres  of  the  subordinate  deities."  This  also  is 
an  easy  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Although  the  system 
of  Ramanuja  admits  the  unity  of  the  total,  within  that 
totality  of  existence  there  are,  according  to  him,  eter- 
nal differences.  Therefore,  for  ail  practical  purposes, 
this  system  also  being  dualistic,  it  was  easy  for  Rama- 
nuja to  keep  up  the  distinction  between  the  personal 
soul  and  the  personal  God  very  clearly. 

We  will  now  try  to  understand  what  the  great  repre- 
sentative of  the  Adwaita  School  has  got  to  say  on  the 
point.  We  shall  see  how  the  Adzvaita  system  main- 
tains all  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  dualist  intact, 
and  at  the  same  time  propounds  its  own  solution  of  the 


262  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

problem,  in  consonance  with  the  high  destiny  of  divine 
humanity.  Those,  who  aspire  to  retain  their  individual 
mind  even  after  Uberation,  and  to  remain  distinct  will 
have  ample  opportunity  of  realising  their  aspiration 
and  enjoy  the  blessing  of  the  qualified  Brahman. 
These  are  they  who  have  been  spoken  of  in  the  Bhdga- 
vata  Purdna  thus:  —  "O  king,  such  are  the  glorious 
qualities  of  the  Lord  that  the  sages  whose  only  pleas- 
ure is  in  the  Self,  and  from  whom  all  bondages  have 
fallen  off,  even  they  love  the  Omni-Present  with  the 
love  that  is  for  love's  sake."  These  are  they  who  are 
spoken  of  by  the  Sdnkkyas  as  getting  merged  in  nature 
in  this  cycle  so  that,  after  attaining  perfection,  they 
may  come  out  in  the  next  as  lords  of  world-systems. 
But  none  of  these  ever  becomes  equal  to  God  [Ih'ara). 
Those  who  attain  to  that  state  where  there  is  neither 
creation,  nor  created,  nor  creator,  where  there  is 
neither  knower,  nor  knowable,  nor  knowledge,  where 
there  is  neither  /,  nor  thou^  nor  he,  where  there  is 
neither  subject,  nor  object,  nor  relation,  "there,  who 
is  seen  by  whom  ?  " — such  persons  have  gone  beyond 
everything,  beyond  "  where  words  cannot  go  nor 
mind,"  gone  to  that  which  the  ^rutis  declare  as  "  Not 
this,  Not  this;"  but  for  those  who  cannot,  or  will  not 
reach  this  state,  there  will  inevitably  remain  the  tri- 
une vision  of  the  one  undifferentiated  BraJwian  as 
nature,  soul,  and  the  interpenetrating  sustainer  of 
both  —  livara.  So,  when  Prahldda  forgot  himself,  he 
found  neither  the  universe  nor  its  cause;  all  was  to 
him  one  Infinite,  undifferentiated  by  name  and  form; 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  263 

but  as  soon  as  he  remembered  that  he  was  Prahldda 
there  was  the  universe  before  him  and  with  it  the  Lord 
of  the  universe  —  "  the  repository  of  an  infinite  num- 
ber of  blessed  quaHties."  So  it  was  with  the  blessed 
Gopis.  So  long  as  they  had  lost  sense  of  their  own 
personal  identity  and  individuality,  they  were  all 
KrishnaSj  and  when  they  began  again  to  think  of  him 
as  the  One  to  be  worshipped,  then  they  were  Gopts 
again,  and  immediately  "  Unto  them  appeared  Krishna 
with  smile  on  his  lotus  face,  clad  in  yellow  robes  and 
having  garlands  on,  the  embodied  conqueror  (in 
beauty)  of  the  god  of  love."     [Bhdgavata  Purdnd). 

Now  to  go  back  to  our  Achdrya  ^ankara  :  "  Those," 
he  says,  "  who  by  worshipping  the  qualified  Brahman 
attain  conjunction  with  the  Supreme  Ruler  preserving 
their  own  mind  —  is  their  glory  limited  or  unlimited  ? 
This  doubt  arising,  we  get  as  an  argument: — Their 
glory  should  be  unlimited,  because  of  the  scriptural 
texts  *  They  attain  their  own  kingdom' — 'To  him  all 
the  gods  offer  worship' — 'Their  desires  are  fulfilled  in 
all  the  worlds.'  As  an  answer  to  this,  Vydsd  writes 
'  Without  the  power  of  ruling  the  universe.'  Barring 
the  power  of  creation,  etc.,  of  the  universe,  the  other 
powers  such  as  a?nmd,  etc.,  are  acquired  by  the  liber- 
ated. As  to  ruling  the  universe,  that  belongs  to  the 
eternally  perfect  livara.  Why  ?  Because  He  is  the 
subject  of  all  the  scriptural  texts  as  regards  creation, 
etc.,  and  the  liberated  souls  are  not  mentioned  in  any 
connection  with  creation,  etc.  The  Supreme  Lord, 
indeed,  is  alone  engaged  in   ruling  the  universe.     The 


264  BHAKTI-  YOGA. 

texts  as  to  creation,  etc.,  all  point  to  Him.  Also  there 
is  given  the  adjective  "  ever  perfect."  Also  the  scrip- 
tures say  that  the  powers  animd,  etc.,  of  others  are 
from  the  search  after,  and  the  worship  of,  God. 
Therefore  they  have  no  place  in  the  ruling  of  the  uni- 
verse. Again  on  account  of  their  possessing  their  own 
minds  it  is  possible  that  their  wills  may  differ,  and  that, 
whilst  one  desires  creation,  another  may  desire  destruc- 
tion. The  only  way  of  avoiding  this  conflict  is  to  make 
all  wills  subordinate  to  some  one  will.  Therefore  the 
conclusion  is  that  the  wills  of  the  liberated  are  depend- 
ent on  the  will  of  the  Supreme  Ruler." 

Bhakti^  then,  can  be  directed  towards  Brahman^  only 
in  his  personal  aspect. —  "  The  way  is  more  difficult  for 
those,  whose  mind  is  attached  to  the  Absolute!  " 
Bhakti  has  to  float  on  smoothly  with  the  current  of  our 
nature.  True  it  is  that  we  cannot  have  any  idea  of  the 
Brahman  which  is  not  anthropomorphic,  but  is  it  not 
equally  true  of  everything  we  know  ?  The  greatest 
psychologist  the  world  has  ever  known,  Bhagavan 
Kapila,  demonstrated  ages  ago  that  human  conscious- 
ness is  one  of  the  elements  in  the  make-up  of  all  the 
objects  of  our  perception  and  conception,  internal  as 
well  as  external.  Beginning  with  our  own  bodies  and 
going  up  to  livara  we  may  see  that  every  object  of  our 
perception  is  this  consciousness  plus  a  something  else, 
whatever  that  may  be;  and  this  unavoidable  mixture  is 
what  we  ordinarily  think  of  as  reality.  Indeed  it  is, 
and  ever  will  be,  all  of  the  reality  that  is  possible  for 
the    human    mind   to   know.     Therefore   to   say  that 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  265 

livara  is  unreal,  because  He  is  anthropomorphic,  is 
sheer  nonsense.  It  sounds  very  much  like  the  occi- 
dental squabble  on  idealism  and  realism,  which  fearful- 
looking  quarrel  has  for  its  foundation  a  mere  play  on 
the  word  real.  The  idea  of  livara  covers  all  the 
ground  ever  denoted  and  connoted  by  the  word  real, 
and  livara  is  as  much  real  as  anything  else  in  the  uni- 
verse; and  after  all  the  word  real  means  nothing  more 
than  what  has  now  been  pointed  out.  Such  is  our  philo- 
sophical conception  of  livara. 

Spiritual  Eealisation,  the  Aim  of  Bhakti-Yoga. 

To  the  Bhakta  these  dry  details  are  necessary  only 
to  strengthen  his  will ;  beyond  that  they  are  of  no  use 
to  him.  For  he  is  treading  on  a  path  which  is  fitted 
very  soon  to  lead  him  beyond  the  hazy  and  turbulent 
regions  of  reason,  to  lead  him  to  the  realm  of  realisa- 
tion. He,  soon,  through  the  mercy  of  the  Lord, 
reaches  a  plane  where  pedantic  and  powerless  reason  is 
eft  far  behind,  and  the  mere  intellectual  groping 
Ihrough  the  dark  gives  place  to  the  daylight  of  direct 
perception.  He  no  more  reasons  and  believes,  he 
almost  perceives.  He  no  more  argues,  he  senses. 
And  is  not  this  seeing  God,  and  feeling  God,  and 
enjoying  God,  higher  than  everything  else  ?  Nay, 
Bhaktas  have  not  been  wanting  who  have  maintained 
that  it  is  higher  than  even  Moksha — liberation.  And 
is  it  not  also  the  highest  utility  ?  There  are  people  — 
and  a  good  many  of  them,  too  —  in  the  world  who  are 


266  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

convinced  that  only  that  is  of  use  and  utility  which 
brings  to  man  creature-comforts.  Even  Religion, 
God,  Eternity,  Soul,  none  of  these  is  of  any  use  to 
them,  as  they  do  not  bring  them  money  or  physical 
comfort.  To  such  all  those  things,  which  do  not 
gratify  the  senses  and  appease  the  appetites,  are  of  no 
utility.  In  every  mind,  utility,  however,  is  condi- 
tioned by  its  own  peculiar  wants.  To  men,  therefore, 
who  never  rise  higher  than  eating,  drinking,  begetting 
progeny,  and  dying,  the  only  gain  is  in  sense  enjoy- 
ments; and  they  must  wait  and  go  through  many  more 
births  and  re-incarnations  to  learn  to  feel  even  the 
faintest  necessity  for  anything  higher.  But  those  to 
whom  the  eternal  interests  of  the  soul  are  of  much 
higher  value  than  the  fleeting  interests  of  this  mundane 
life,  to  whom  the  gratification  of  the  senses  is  but  like 
the  thoughtless  play  of  the  baby,  to  them  God  and  the 
love  of  God  form  the  highest  and  the  only  utility  of 
human  existence.  Thank  God  there  are  some  such  still 
living  in  this  world  of  too  much  worldliness. 

Bhakti-  Voga,  as  we  have  said,  is  divided  into  the 
gaum  or  the  preparatory,  and  the  para  or  the  supreme 
forms.  We  shall  find,  as  we  go  on,  how,  in  the  pre- 
paratory stage,  we  unavoidably  stand  in  need  of  many 
concrete  helps  to  enable  us  to  get  on;  and,  indeed,  the 
mythological  and  symbological  parts  of  all  religions  are 
natural  growths  which  early  environ  the  aspiring  soul 
and  help  it  Godward.  It  is  also  a  significant  fact  that 
spiritual  giants  have  been  produced  only  in  those  sys- 
tems of  religion  where  there  is  an  exuberant  growth  of 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  267 

rich  mythology  and  ritualism.  The  dry  fanatical 
forms  of  religion  which  attempt  to  eradicate  all  that  is 
poetical,  all  that  is  beautiful  and  sublime,  all  that 
gives  a  firm  grasp  to  the  infant  mind  tottering  in  its 
Godward  way  —  the  forms  which  attempt  to  break 
down  the  very  ridge  poles  of  the  spiritual  roof,  and  in 
their  ignorant  and  superstitious  conceptions  of  truth 
try  to  drive  away  all  that  is  life-giving,  all  that  fur- 
nishes the  formative  material  to  the  spiritual  plant 
growing  in  the  human  soul  —  such  forms  of  religion 
too  soon  find  that  all  of  what  is  left  to  them  is  but  an 
empty  shell,  a  contentless  frame  of  words  and  sophis- 
try, with  perhaps  a  little  flavour  of  a  kind  of  social 
scavengering  or  the  so-called  spirit  of  reform.  The 
vast  mass  of  those  whose  religion  is  like  this  3re  con- 
scious or  unconscious  materialists  —  the  end  and  aim 
of  their  lives  here  and  hereafter  being  enjoyment, 
which,  indeed,  is  to  them  the  alpha  and  the  omega  of 
human  life.  Work  like  street-cleaning  and  scavenger- 
ing intended  for  the  material  comfort  of  man  is, 
according  to  them,  the  "be-all"  and  "end-all"  of 
human  existence;  and  the  sooner  the  followers  of  this 
curious  mixture  of  ignorance  and  fanaticism  come  out 
in  their  true  colors,  and  join,  as  they  well  deserve  to 
do,  the  ranks  of  atheists  and  materialists,  the  better 
will  it  be  for  the  world.  One  ounce  of  the  practice  of 
righteousness  and  of  spiritual  self-realisation  out- 
weighs tons  and  tons  of  frothy  talk  and  nonsensical 
sentiments.  Show  us  one,  but  one,  gigantic  spiritual 
genius  growing  out   of  all    this  dry  dust  of  ignorance 


268  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

and  fanaticism;  and  if  you  cannot,  close  your  mouths, 
open  the  windows  of  your  hearts  to  the  clear  light  of 
truth,  and  sit  like  children  at  the  feet  of  those  who 
know  what  they  are  talking  about  —  the  sages  of 
India.     Let  us  then  listen  attentively  to  what  they  say. 

The  Need  of  a  Guru, 

Every  soul  is  destined  to  be  perfect,  and  every  being, 
in  the  end,  will  attain  the  state  of  perfection.  What- 
ever we  are  now,  is  the  result  of  our  acts  and  thoughts 
in  the  past;  and  whatever  we  shall  be  in  the  future, 
will  be  the  result  of  what  we  think  and  do  now.  But 
this,  our  shaping  of  our  own  destinies,  does  not  pre- 
clude our  receiving  help  from  outside;  nay,  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  such  help  is  absolutely  necessary. 
When  it  comes,  the  higher  powers  and  possibilities  of 
the  soul  are  quickened,  spiritual  life  is  awakened, 
growth  is  animated,  and  man  becomes  holy  and  perfect 
in  the  end. 

This  quickening  impulse  cannot  be  derived  from 
books.  The  soul  can  only  receive  impulses  from 
another  soul,  and  from  nothing  else.  We  may  study 
books  all  our  lives,  we  may  become  very  intellectual; 
but,  in  the  end,  we  find  that  we  have  not  developed  at 
all  spiritually.  It  is  not  true  that  a  high  order  of  intel- 
lectual development  a%ays  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a 
proportionate  developm<;ftt  of  the  spiritual  side  in  man. 
In  studying  books  we  are  sometimes  deluded  into 
thinking  that  thereby  we  are  being  spiritually  helped; 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  269 

but,  if  we  analyse  the  effect  of  the  study  of  books  on 
ourselves,  we  shall  find  that,  at  the  utmost,  it  is  only 
our  intellect  that  derived  profit  from  such  studies,  but 
not  our  inner  spirit.  This  insufficiency  of  books  to 
quicken  spiritual  growth  is  the  reason  why,  although 
almost  every  one  of  us  can  speak  most  wonderfully  on 
spiritual  matters,  when  it  comes  to  action  and  the 
living  of  a  truly  spiritual  life,  we  find  ourselves  so 
awfully  deficient.  To  quicken  the  spirit,  the  impulse 
must  come  from  another  soul. 

The  person  from  whose  soul  such  impulse  comes  is 
called  the  Guru  —  the  teacher;  and  the  person  to 
whose  soul  the  impulse  is  conveyed  is  called  the 
^ishya  —  the  student.  To  convey  such  an  impulse,  to 
any  soul,  in  the  first  place,  the  soul  from  which  it  pro- 
ceeds must  possess  the  power  of  transmitting  it,  as  it 
were  to  another;  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  soul  to 
which  it  is  transmitted  must  be  fit  to  receive  it.  The 
seed  must  be  a  living  seed,  and  the  field  must  be 
ready  ploughed;  and  when  both  these  conditions  are 
fulfilled  a  wonderful  growth  of  genuine  religion  takes 
place.  "  The  true  preacher  of  religion  has  to  be  of 
wonderful  capabilities,  and  clever  shall  his  hearer 
be  " — and  when  both  of  these  are  really  wonderful 
and  extraordinary,  then  will  a  splendid  spiritual 
awakening  result,  and  not  otherwise.  Such  alone  are 
the  real  teachers,  and  such  alone  are  also  the  real  stu- 
dents, the  real  aspirants.  All  others  are  only  playing 
with  spirituality.  They  have  just  a  little  curiosity 
awakened,  just  a  little  intellectual  aspiration  kindled 


2/0  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

in  them,  but  are  merely  standing  on  the  Outward  fringe 
of  the  horizon  of  religion.  There  is,  no  doubt,  some 
value  even  in  that,  as  it  may,  in  course  of  time,  result, 
in  the  awakening  of  a  real  thirst  for  religion;  and  it  is 
a  mysterious  law  of  nature  that,  as  soon  as  the  field  is 
ready,  the  seed  must  and  does  come,  as  soon  as  the 
soul  earnestly  desires  to  have  religion,  the  transmitter 
of  the  religious  force  must  and  does  appear  to  help  that 
soul.  When  the  power  that  attracts  the  light  of  relig- 
ion in  the  receiving  soul  is  full  and  strong,  the  power 
which  answers  to  that  attraction  and  sends  in  light 
does  come  as  a  matter  of  course. 

There  are,  however,  certain  great  dangers  in  the 
way.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  danger  to  the  receiv- 
ing soul  of  its  mistaking  momentary  emotions  for  real 
religious  yearning.  We  may  study  that  in  ourselves. 
Many  a  time  in  our  lives,  somebody  dies  whom  we 
loved;  we  receive  a  blow;  we  feel  that  the  world  is 
slipping  between  our  fingers,  that  we  want  something 
surer  and  higher,  and  that  we  must  become  religious. 
In  a  few  days  that  wave  of  feeling  has  passed  away, 
and  we  are  left  stranded  just  where  we  were  before. 
We  are  all  of  us  often  mistaking  such  impulses  for  real 
thirst  after  religion;  but  as  long  as  these  momentary 
emotions  are  thus  mistaken,  that  continuous,  real, 
craving  of  the  soul  for  religion  will  not  come,  and  we 
can  not  find  the  true  transmitter  of  spirituality  into  our 
nature.  So,  whenever  we  are  tempted  to  complain  of 
our  search  after  the  truth,  that  we  desire  so  much, 
proving  vain,  instead  of  so  complaining,  our  first  duty 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  2/1 

ought  to  be  to  look  into  our  own  souls,  and  find 
whether  the  craving  in  the  heart  is  real.  Then  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases  it  would  be  discovered  that  we 
were  not  fit  for  receiving  the  truth,  that  there  was  no 
real  thirst  for  spirituality. 

There  are  still  greater  dangers  in  regard  to  the 
transmitter^  the  Guru.  There  are  many  who,  though 
immersed  in  ignorance,  yet,  in  the  pride  of  their 
hearts,  fancy  they  know  everything,  and  not  only  do 
not  stop  there,  but  offer  to  take  others  on  their  shoul- 
ders; and  thus  the  blind  leading  the  blind,  both  fall 
into  the  ditch. — "  Fools  dwelling  in  darkness,  wise  in 
their  own  conceit,  and  puffed  up  with  vain  knowledge, 
go  round  and  round  staggering  to  and  fro,  like  blind 
men  led  by  the  blind."— (J///;/^.  Up.,  i.  2.  8).  The 
world  is  full  of  these.  Every  one  wants  to  be  a 
teacher,  every  beggar  wants  to  make  a  gift  of  a  million 
dollars!  Just  as  these  beggars  are  ridiculous,  so  are 
these  teachers. 

Qualifications  of  the  Aspirant  and  the  Teacher. 

How  are  we  to  know  a  teacher  then  ?  The  sun  re- 
quires no  torch  to  make  him  visible,  we  need  not  light 
a  candle  in  order  to  see  him.  When  the  sun  rises,  we 
instinctively  become  aware  of  the  fact,  and  when  a 
teacher  of  men  comes  to  help  us,  the  soul  will  instinc- 
tively know  that  truth  has  already  begun  to  shine  upcn 
it.  Truth  stands  on  its  own  evidence,  it  does  not  re- 
quire any  other  testimony  to  prove  it  true,  it  is  self- 
effulgent.     It  penetrates  into  the  innermost  corners  of 


272  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

our  nature,  and  in  its  presence  the  whole  universe 
stands  up  and  says,  "  This  is  truth."  The  teachers 
whose  wisdom  and  truth  shine  Uke  the  light  of  the  sun 
are  the  very  greatest  the  world  has  known,  and  they 
are  worshipped  as  gods  by  the  major  portion  of  man- 
kind. But  we  may  get  help  from  comparatively  lesser 
ones  also;  only  we  ourselves  do  not  possess  intuition 
enough  to  judge  well  of  the  man  from  whom  we 
receive  teaching  and  guidance;  so  there  ought  to  be 
certain  tests,  certain  conditions,  for  the  teacher  to 
satisfy,  as  there  are  also  for  the  taught. 

The  conditions  necessary  for  the  taught  are  purity, 
a  real  thirst  after  knowledge,  and  perseverance.  No 
impure  soul  can  be  really  religious.  Purity  in  thought, 
speech,  and  act,  is  absolutely  necessary  for  one  to  be 
religious.  As  to  the  thirst  after  knowledge,  it  is  an 
old  law  that  we  all  get  whatever  we  want.  None  of 
us  can  get  anything  other  than  what  we  fix  our  hearts 
upon.  To  pant  for  religion  truly  is  a  very  difficult 
thing,  not  at  all  so  easy  as  we  generally  imagine. 
Hearing  religious  talks,  reading  religious  books,  is  no 
proof  yet  of  a  real  want  felt  in  the  heart;  there  must 
be  a  continuous  struggle,  a  constant  fight,  an  unre- 
mitting grappling  with  our  lower  nature,  till  the  higher 
want  is  actually  felt  and  the  victory  is  achieved.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  one  or  two  days,  of  years,  or  of  lives; 
the  struggle  may  have  to  go  on  for  hundreds  of  life 
times.  The  success  sometimes  may  come  immediately, 
but  we  must  be  ready  to  wait  patiently  even  for  what 
may  look  like  an  infinite  length  of  time.     The  student 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  273 

who  sets  out  with  such  a  spirit  of  perseverance  will 
surely  find  success  and  realisation  at  last. 

In  regard  to  the  teacher,  we  must  see  that  he  knows 
the  spirit  of  the  scriptures.  The  whole  world  reads 
Bibles,  Vedas,  and  Q'urans;  but  they  are  all  only 
words,  syntax,  etymology,  philology,  the  dry  bones  of 
religion.  The  teacher  who  deals  too  much  in  words, 
and  allows  the  mind  to  be  carried  away  by  the  force  of 
words,  loses  the  spirit.  It  is  the  knowledge  of  the 
spirit  of  the  scriptures  alone  that  constitutes  the  true 
religious  teacher.  The  network  of  the  words  of  the 
scriptures  is  like  a  huge  forest  in  which  the  human 
mind  often  loses  itself  and  finds  no  way  out.  "  The 
network  of  words  is  a  big  forest;  it  is  the  cause  of 
curious  wanderings."  The  various  methods  of  joining 
words,  the  various  methods  of  speaking  in  beautiful 
language,  the  various  methods  of  explaining  the  dictiou 
of  the  scriptures,  are  only  for  the  disputations  and 
enjoyment  of  the  learned;  they  do  not  conduce  to  the 
development  of  spiritual  conception.  Those  who 
employ  such  methods  to  impart  religion  to  others  are 
only  desirous  to  show  off  their  learning,  so  that  the 
world  may  praise  them  as  great  scholars.  You  will 
find  that  no  one  of  the  great  teachers  of  the  world  ever 
went  into  these  various  explanations  of  the  texts;  there 
is  with  them  no  attempt  at  "text  torturing,"  no  eternal 
playing  upon  the  meaning  of  words  and  their  roots. 
Yet  they  nobly  taught,  while  others  who  have  nothing 
to  teach,  have  taken  up  a  word  sometimes,  and  written 
a  three  volume  book  on  its  origin,  on  the  man  who 
x8 


274  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

used  it  first,  and  on  what  that  man  was  accustomed  to 
eat,  and  how  long  he  slept  and  so  on. 

Bhagavdn  Rdmakrishna  used  to  tell  a  story  of  some 
men  who  went  into  a  mango  orchard  and  busied  them- 
selves in  counting  the  leaves,  the  twigs,  and  the 
branches,  examining  their  color,  comparing  their  size, 
and  noting  down  everything  most  carefully,  and  then 
got  up  a  learned  discussion  on  each  of  these  topics 
which  were  undoubtedly  highly  interesting  to  them. 
But  one  of  them,  more  sensible  than  the  others,  did  not 
care  for  all  these  things,  and  instead  thereof,  began 
to  eat  the  mango  fruit.  And  was  he  not  wise?  So 
leave  this  counting  of  leaves  and  twigs  and  this  note- 
taking  to  others.  This  kind  of  work  has  its  proper 
place,  but  not  here  in  the  spiritual  domain.  You  can 
never  once  see  a  strong  spiritual  man  among  these 
"  leaf -counters."  Religion,  the  highest  aim,  the 
highest  glory  of  man,  does  not  require  so  much  labour 
as  leaf-cou7iting.  If  you  want  to  be  a  Bhakta  it  is  not 
at  all  necessary  for  you  to  know  where  Krishtia  was 
born,  in  Mathurd  or  in  Vraja^  what  he  was  doing, 
or  just  the  exact  date  on  which  he  pronounced  the 
teachings  of  the  Gttd.  You  only  require  to  feel  the 
craving  for  the  beautiful  lessons  of  duty  and  love  in 
the  Gitd.  All  the  other  particulars  about  it  and  its 
author  are  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  learned.  Let  them 
have  what  they  desire.  Say  ''S'dntih  S'dnWr  to  their 
learned  controversies,  and  let  us  eat  the  mangoes. 

The  second  condition  necessary  in  the  teacher  is  — 
sinlessness.    The  question  is  often  asked,  "Why  should 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  2/5 

we  look  into  the  character  and  personality  of  a  teacher? 
We  have  only  to  judge  of  what  he  says,  and  take  that 
up."  This  is  not  right.  If  a  man  wants  to  teach  me 
something  of  dynamics  or  chemistry,  or  any  other 
physical  science,  he  may  be  any  thing  he  likes,  because 
what  the  physical  sciences  require,  is  merely  an  intel- 
lectual equipment;  but  in  the  spiritual  sciences  it  is 
impossible  from  first  to  last  that  there  can  be  any 
spiritual  light  in  the  soul  that  is  impure.  What  religion 
can  an  impure  man  teach?  The  si7ic  qua  non  of  acquir- 
ing spiritual  truth  for  one's  self,  or  for  imparting  it  to 
others,  is  the  purity  of  heart  and  soul.  A  vision  of 
God,  or  a  glimpse  of  the  beyond,  never  comes  until 
the  soul  is  pure.  Hence  with  the  teacher  of  religion 
we  must  see  first  what  he  /V,  and  then  what  he  says. 
He  must  be  perfectly  pure,  and  then  alone  comes  the 
value  of  his  words,  because  he  is  only  then  the  true 
''transmitter.**  What  can  he  transmit,  if  he  has  not 
spiritual  power  in  himself  ?  There  must  be  the  worthy 
vibration  of  spirituality  in  the  mind  of  the  teacher  so 
that  it  may  be  sympathetically  conveyed  to  the  mind 
of  the  taught.  The  function  of  the  teacher  is  indeed 
an  affair  of  the  transference  of  something,  and  not  one 
of  a  mere  stimulation  of  the  existing  intellectual  or 
other  faculties  in  the  taught.  Something  real  and 
appreciable  as  an  influence  comes  from  the  teacher 
and  goes  to  the  taught.  Therefore  the  teacher  must 
be  pure. 

The  third  condition  is  in  regard  to  the  motive.     The 
teacher  must  not  teach  with  any  ulterior  selfish  motive, 


2'j6  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

for  money,  name,  or  fame;  his  work  must  be  simply 
out  of  love,  out  of  pure  love  for  mankind  at  large.  The 
only  medium  through  which  spiritual  force  can  be 
transmitted  is  love.  Any  selfish  motive,  such  as  the 
desire  for  gain  or  for  name,  will  immediately  destroy 
this  conveying  medium.  God  is  love,  and  only  he  who 
has  known  God  as  love  can  be  a  teacher  of  godliness 
and  God  to  man. 

When  you  see  that  in  your  teacher  these  conditions 
are  all  fulfilled,  you  are  safe;  if  they  are  not,  it  is 
unsafe  to  allow  yourself  to  be  taught  by  him,  for  there 
is  the  great  danger  that,  if  he  cannot  convey  goodness 
into  your  heart,  he  may  convey  wickedness.  This 
danger  must  by  all  means  be  guarded  against.  "  He 
who  is  learned,  sinless  and  unpolluted  by  lust  is  the 
greatest  knower  of  the  Brakman.'* 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  naturally  follows  that 
we  cannot  be  taught  to  love,  appreciate,  and  assimilate 
religion  everywhere  and  by  everybody.  The  "sermon 
in  stones,  books  in  running  brooks,  and  good  in  every- 
thing" is  all  very  true  as  a  poetical  figure:  but  no  man 
can  impart  to  another  a  single  grain  of  truth  unless  he 
has  the  undeveloped  germs  of  it  in  himself.  To  whom 
do  the  stones  and  brooks  preach  sermons?  To  the 
human  soul  the  lotus  of  whose  inner  holy  shrine  is 
already  quick  with  life.  And  the  light  which  causes 
the  beautiful  opening  out  of  this  lotus  comes  always 
from  the  good  and  wise  teacher.  When  the  heart  has 
thus  been  opened,  it  becomes  fit  to  receive  teaching 
from  the  stones,  or  the  brooks,  or  the  stars,  or  the  sun, 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  2/7 

or  the  moon,  or  from  anything  which  has  its  existence 
in  our  divine  universe;  but  the  unopened  heart  will  see 
in  them  nothing  but  mere  stones  or  mere  brooks. 
A  blind  man  may  go  to  a  museum,  but  he  will  not  profit 
by  it  in  any  way;  his  eyes  must  be  opened  first,  and 
then  alone  he  will  be  able  to  learn  what  the  things  in 
the  museum  can  teach. 

This  eye-opener  of  the  aspirant  after  religion  is  the 
teacher.  With  the  teacher,  therefore,  our  relation- 
ship is  the  same  as  that  between  an  ancestor  and  hi'i 
descendant.  Without  faith,  humility,  submission,  and 
veneration  in  our  hearts  to  our  religious  teacher,  there 
can  not  be  any  growth  of  religion  in  us;  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that,  where  this  kind  of  relation  between 
the  teacher  and  the  taught  prevails,  there  alone  gigantic 
spiritual  men  are  growing,  while  in  those  countries 
which  have  neglected  to  keep  up  this  kind  of  relation,  the 
religious  teacher  has  become  a  mere  lecturer,  the  teacher 
expecting  his  five  dollars,  and  the  person  taught  expect- 
ing his  brain  to  be  filled  with  the  teacher's  words,  and 
each  going  his  own  way  after  this  much  is  done.  Under 
such  circumstances  spirituality  becomes  almost  an 
unknown  quantity.  There  is  none  to  transmit  it,  and 
none  to  have  it  transmitted  to.  Religion  with  such 
people  becomes  business,  they  think  they  can  obtain  it 
with  their  dollars.  Would  to  God  that  religion  could 
be  obtained  so  easily!     But  unfortunately  it  cannot. 

Religion,  which  is  the  highest  knowledge  and  the 
highest  wisdom,  cannot  be  bought,  nor  can  it  be 
acquired  from  books.     You  may  thrust  your  head  into 


2^%  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

all  the  corners  of  the  world,  you  may  explore  the  Hima- 
layas, the  Alps,  and  the  Caucasus,  you  may  sound  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and  pry  into  every  nook  of  Thibet 
and  the  desert  of  Gobi,  you  will  not  find  it  any  where, 
until  your  heart  is  ready  for  receiving  it,  and  your 
teacher  has  come.  And  when  that  divinely  appointed 
teacher  comes,  serve  him  with  childlike  confidence  and 
simplicity,  freely  open  your  heart  to  his  influence,  and 
see  in  him  God  manifested.  Those  who  come  to  seek 
truth  with  such  a  spirit  of  love  and  veneration,  to  them 
the  Lord  of  Truth  reveals  the  most  wonderful  things 
regarding  Truth,  Goodness,  and  Beauty. 

Incarnate  Teachers  and  Incarnation. 

Wherever  His  name  is  spoken,  that  very  place  is  holy. 
How  much  more  so  is  the  man  who  speaks  His  name, 
and  with  what  veneration  ought  we  to  approach  that 
man  out  of  whom  comes  to  us  spiritual  truth?  Such 
great  teachers  of  spiritual  truth  are  indeed  very  few  in 
number  in  this  world,  but  the  world  is  never  altogether 
without  them.  The  moment  it  is  absolutely  bereft  of 
these,  it  becomes  a  hideous  hell  and  hastens  on  to  its 
destruction.  They  are  always  the  fairest  flowers  of 
human  life, —  the  ocean  of  mercy  without  any  motive. 
*  'Know  the  Gtiru  to  be  Me,"  says  Sri  Krishna  in  the 
Gitd. 

Hio:her  and  nobler  than  all  ordinarvones  are  another 
set  of  teachers,  Avatdras  of  I§vara  in  the  world. 
They  can  transmit  spirituality  with  a  touch,  even  with 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  279 

a  mere  wish.  The  lowest  and  the  most  degraded 
characters  become  in  one  second  saints  at  their  com- 
mand. They  are  the  Teachers  of  all  teachers,  the 
highest  manifestations  of  God  through  man.  We  can- 
not see  God  except  through  them.  We  cannot  help 
worshipping  them;  and  indeed  they  are  the  only  ones 
whom  we  are  bound  to  worship. 

No  man  can  really  see  God  except  through  these 
human  manifestations.  If  we  try  to  see  God  otherwise, 
we  make  for  ourselves  a  hideous  caricature  of  Him, 
and  believe  the  caricature  to  be  no  worse  than  the 
original.  There  is  a  story  of  an  ignorant  man  who  was 
asked  to  make  an  image  of  the  God  Siva,  and  who, 
after  days  of  hard  struggle,  manufactured  only  the 
image  of  a  monkey!  So,  whenever  we  try  to  think  of 
God  as  He  is  in  His  absolute  perfection,  we  invariably 
meet  with  the  most  miserable  failure;  because  as  long 
as  we  are  men  we  cannot  conceive  Him  as  anything 
higher  than  man.  The  time  will  come  when  we  shall 
transcend  our  human  nature,  and  know  Him  as  He  is; 
but  as  long  as  we  are  men  we  must  worship  Him  in 
man  and  as  man.  Talk  as  you  may,  try  as  you  may, 
you  cannot  think  of  God  except  as  a  man.  You  may 
deliver  great  intellectual  discourses  on  God  and  all 
things  under  the  sun,  become  very  great  rationalists 
and  prove  to  your  satisfaction  that  all  these  accounts 
of  the  Avatdras  of  God  as  man  are  nonsense.  But  let 
us  come  for  a  moment  to  practical  common  sense.  What 
is  there  behind  this  kind  of  remarkable  intellect?  Zero, 
nothing,  simply  so  much  froth.     When  next  you  hear 


28o  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

a  man  delivering  a  great  intellectual  lecture  against 
this  worship  of  the  Avatdras  of  God,  get  hold  of  him 
and  ask  him  what  his  idea  of  God  is,  what  he  knows  by 
"omnipotence,"  "omnipresence, "and  all  similar  terms, 
beyond  the  spelling  of  the  words.  He  really  means 
nothing  by  them  ;  he  cannot  formulate  as  their  meaning 
any  idea  unaffected  by  his  own  human  nature;  he  is  no 
better  off  in  this  matter  than  the  man  in  the  street  who 
has  not  read  a  single  book.  That  man  in  the  street, 
however,  is  quiet  and  does  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
world;  while  this  big  talker  creates  disturbance  and 
misery  among  mankind.  Religion  is  after  all  realisa- 
tion, and  we  must  make  the  sharpest  distinction  between 
talk  and  intuitive  experience.  What  we  experience  in 
the  depths  of  our  souls  is  realisation.  Nothing  indeed 
is  so  uncommon  as  common  sense  in  regard  to  this 
matter. 

By  our  present  constitution  we  are  limited  and  bound 
to  see  God  as  man.  If,  for  instance,  the  buffaloes 
want  to  worship  God,  they  will,  in  keeping  with  their 
own  nature,  see  Him  as  a  huge  buffalo;  if  a  fish  wants 
to  worship  God,  it  wnll  have  to  form  an  idea  of  Him  as 
a  big  fish;  and  man  has  to  think  of  Him  as  man.  And 
these  various  conceptions  are  not  due  to  morbidly 
active  imagination.  Man,  the  buffalo,  and  the  fish,  all 
may  be  supposed  to  represent  so  many  different  vessels 
so  to  say.  All  these  vessels  go  to  the  sea  of  God  to 
get  filled  with  water,  each  according  to  its  own  shape 
and  capacity;  in  the  man  the  water  takes  the  shape  of 
man,  in  the  buffalo  the  shape  of  a  buffalo,  and  in  the 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  28 1 

fish  the  shape  of  the  fish.  In  each  of  these  vessels 
there  is  the  same  water  of  the  sea  of  God.  When  men 
see  Him,  they  see  Him  as  man,  and  the  animals,  if 
they  have  any  conception  of  God  at  all,  must  see  Him 
as  animal,  each  according  to  its  own  ideal.  So  we 
cannot  help  seeing  God  as  man,  and,  therefore,  we  are 
bound  to  worship  Him  as  man.     There  is  no  other  way. 

Two  kinds  of  men  do  not  worship  God  as  man  —  the 
human  brute  who  has  no  religion,  and  the  Parama- 
hatnsa^  who  has  risen  beyond  all  the  weaknesses  of 
humanity  and  has  transcended  the  limits  of  his  own 
human  nature.  To  him  all  nature  has  become  his  own 
Self.  He  alone  can  worship  God  as  He  is.  Here  too, 
as  in  all  other  cases,  the  two  extremes  meet.  The 
extreme  of  ignorance  and  the  other  extreme  of  knowl- 
edge—  neither  of  these  go  through  acts  of  worship. 
The  human  brute  does  not  worship  because  of  his 
ignorance,  and  the  Jtvanmuktas  (free  souls)  do  not 
worship  because  they  have  realised  God  in  themselves. 
Being  between  these  two  poles  of  existence,  if  any  one 
tells  you  that  he  is  not  going  to  worship  God  as  man, 
take  kindly  care  of  that  man;  he  is,  not  to  use  any 
harsher  term,  an  irresponsible  talker;  his  religion  is  for 
unsound  and  empty  brains. 

God  understands  human  failings  and  becomes  man  to 
do  good  to  humanity.  "Whenever  virtue  subsides 
and  wickedness  prevails  I  manifest  myself.  To  estab- 
lish virtue,  to  destroy  evil,  to  save  the  good  I  come 
from  yuga  to  yuga.'*  "  Fools  deride  me  who  have 
assumed  the  human  form,   without  knowing  my  real 


282  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

nature  as  the  Lord  of  the  universe."  Such  is  i§rt 
Krishna  s  declaration  in  the  Gttd  on  incarnation. 
"When  a  huge  tidal  wave  comes,"  says  Bhagavdn 
^ri  Rdmakn'shna^  "all  the  little  brooks  and  ditches 
become  full  to  the  brim  without  any  effort  or  con- 
sciousness on  their  own  part;  so  when  an  incarnation 
comes  a  tidal  wave  of  spirituality  breaks  upon  the 
world,  and  people  feel  spirituality  almost  full  in  the 
air." 

The  Mantra:  Om:  Word  and  "Wisdom. 

But  we  are  now  considering  not  these  Mahd-purushaSy 
the  great  incarnations,  but  only  the  Siddha-Gurus 
(teachers  who  have  attained  the  goal);  they  as  a  rule 
have  to  convey  the  germs  of  spiritual  wisdom  to  the 
disciple  by  means  of  words  {jnantra)  to  be  meditated 
upon.  What  are  these  mantras]  The  whole  of  this 
universe  has,  according  to  Indian  philosophy,  both 
name  and  form  as  its  conditions  of  manifestation.  In 
the  human  microcosm,  there  can  not  be  a  single  wave 
in  the  mind-stuff  (chitta),  unconditioned  by  name  and 
form.  If  it  be  true  that  nature  is  built  throughout  on 
the  same  plan,  this  kind  of  conditioning  by  name  and 
form  must  also  be  the  plan  of  the  building  of  the  whole 
of  the  cosmos.  "  As  one  lump  of  clay  being  known, 
all  clay  is  known,"  so  the  knowledge  of  the  microcosm 
must  lead  to  the  knowledge  of  the  macrocosm  Now, 
form  is  the  outer  crust,  of  which  the  name  or  the  idea 
is  the  inner  essence  or  kernel.  The  body  is  the  form, 
and   tilt    mind,  or  the  antahkarana^  is   the   name,  and 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  283 

sound-symbols  are  universally  associated  with  name  in 
all  beings  having  the  power  of  speech.  In  the  individual 
man  the  thought-waves  arising  in  the  limited  inahatov 
mind-stuff  (chitta)  must  manifest  themselves,  first  as 
7c>ords,  and  then  as  the  more  concrete /^r/z/i-. 

In  the  universe,  Brahma  or  Iliranya-garbha^  or  the 
cosmic  intelligence  {inahat)  first  manifested  himself  as 
name,  and  then  as  form,  /.  e.^  as  this  universe.  All 
this  expressed  sensible  universe  is  the  form,  behind 
which  stands  the  eternal  inexpressible  sphota  the  mani- 
festor  as  Logos  or  Word.  This  eternal  sphota,  the 
essential  eternal  material  of  all  ideas  or  names,  is 
the  power  through  which  the  Lord  creates  the  universe; 
nay,  the  Lord  first  becomes  conditioned  as  the  sphota, 
and  then  evolves  himself  out  as  the  yet  more  concrete 
sensible  universe.  This  sphota,  has  one  word  as  its 
only  possible  symbol,  and  this  is  the  Om.  And  as  by 
no  possible  means  of  analysis  we  can  separate  the  word 
from  the  idea,  this  Om  and  the  eternal  sphota  are 
inseparable;  and  therefore  it  is  out  of  this  holiest  of 
all  holy  words,  the  mother  of  all  names  and  forms,  the 
eternal  Om,  that  the  whole  universe  may  be  supposed 
to  have  been  created.  But  it  may  be  said  that, 
although  thought  and  word  are  inseparable,  yet  as 
there  may  be  various  word-symbols  for  the  same 
thought,  it  is  not  necessary  that  this  particular  word 
Om  should  be  the  word  representative  of  the  thought, 
out  of  which  the  universe  has  become  manifested. 
To  this  objection  we  reply  that  this  Om  is  the  only 
possible  symbol   which  covers  the  whole  ground,  and 


2^4  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

there  is  none  other  like  it.  The  spJwta  is  the  mate- 
rial of  all  words,  yet  is  not  any  definite  word  in 
its  fully  formed  state.  That  is  to  say,  if  all  the 
peculiarities  which  distinguish  one  word  from  another 
be  removed,  then  what  remains  will  be  the  sphota ; 
therefore  this  sphota  is  called  the  Ndda-Brahma  (the 
somid-Brahinaii).  Now,  as  every  word-symbol,  in- 
tended to  express  the  inexpressible  sphota  will  so  par- 
ticularize it  that  it  will  no  longer  be  the  sphota^  that 
symbol  which  particularizes  it  the  least  and  at  the  same 
time  most  approximately  expresses  its  nature,  will  be  the 
truest  symbol  thereof;  and  this  is  the  Oni^  and  the  Om 
only ;  because  these  three  letters  A,  U,  M,  pronounced  in 
combination  as  Otn^  may  well  be  the  generalised  symbol 
of  all  possible  sounds.  The  letter  A  is  the  least  differen- 
tiated of  all  sounds,  therefore  Krishna  says  in  the  Gitd 
"I  am  A  among  the  letters."  Again,  all  articulate 
sounds  are  produced  in  the  space  within  the  mouth 
beginning  with  the  root  of  the  tongue  and  ending  in 
the  lips  —  the  throat  sound  is  A,  and  M  is  the  last 
lip  sound;  and  the  U  exactly  represents  the  rolling 
forward  of  the  impulse  which  begins  at  the  root  of 
the  tongue  till  it  ends  in  the  lips.  If  properly  pro- 
nounced, this  Om  will  represent  the  whole  phenomenon 
of  sound-production,  and  no  other  word  can  do  this; 
and  this,  therefore,  is  the  fittest  symbol  of  the  sphota^ 
which  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  Om.  And  as  the 
symbol  can  never  be  separated  from  the  thing  signified, 
the  Om  and  the  sphota  are  one.  And  as  the  sphota^ 
being  the  finer  side  of  the  manifested  universe,  is  nearer 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  285 

to  God,  and  is  indeed  the  first  manifestation  of  Divine 
Wisdom,  this  Oni  is  truly  symbolic  of  God.  Again, 
just  as  the  "one  only"  Brahman,  the  Ak/ia?ida  — 
Satchiddnanda,  the  undivided  Existence- Knowledge- 
Bliss,  can  be  conceived  by  imperfect  human  souls  only 
from  particular  standpoints  of  view  and  associated  with 
particular  qualities,  so  this  universe,  His  body,  has 
also  to  be  thought  of  along  the  line  of  the  thinker's 
mind. 

This  direction  of  the  worshipper's  mind  is  guided  by 
its  prevailing  elements  or  Tattvas.  The  result  is  that 
the  same  God  will  be  seen  in  various  manifestations  as 
the  possessor  of  various  predominant  qualities,  and  the 
same  universe  will  appear  as  full  of  manifold  forms. 
In  the  same  way  in  which,  even  in  the  case  of  the  least 
differentiated  and  the  most  universal  symbol  Om, 
thought  and  sound-symbol  are  seen  to  be  inseparably 
associated  with  each  other,  this  law  of  their  inseparable 
association  applies  to  the  many  differentiated  views  of 
God  and  the  universe:  each  of  them  must  have  a  par- 
ticular word-symbol  to  express  it.  These  word-sym- 
bols, evolved  out  of  the  deepest  spiritual  perceptions 
of  sages,  symbolize  and  express  as  nearly  as  possible 
the  particular  view  of  God  and  the  universe  they  stand 
for.  And  as  the  Oin  represents  the  Ak/ianda,  the 
undifferentiated  Bra/unafi,  the  others  represent  the 
KJianda  or  the  differentiated  views  of  the  same  Being; 
and  they  are  all  helpful  to  divine  meditation  and  the 
acquisition  of  true  knowledge. 


286  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

Worship  of  Substitutes  and  Images. 

The  next  points  to  be  considered  are  the  worship  of 
Pratikds  or  of  things  more  or  less  satisfactory  as  substi- 
tutes for  God,  and  the  worship  of  Pratimds  or  images. 
What  is  the  worship  of  God  through  diFratikal  It  is 
"Joining  the  mind  with  devotion  to  that  which  is  not 
BraJunan^  taking  it  to  be  Brahman.''  Says  Bhagavdn 
Rdmdnuja; — "Worship  the  mind  as  Brahman^  this  is 
internal ;  and  the  Akdia  as  Brahman^  this  is  the  sense- 
meaning."  The  mind  is  an  internal  Prattkd,  the  Akdia 
is  an  external  one;  and  both  have  to  be  worshipped  as 
substitutes  of  God.      Similarly — *  The  Sun  is  Brahfna?ty 

this  is  the    command' 'He  who  worships  Name  as 

Brahman^''  and  in  all  such  passages  the  doubt  arises  as 

to  the  worship  of  jPr^^/Z/^^i- ,"  says  Sankara.     The 

word  Pratikd  means  going  towards,  and  worshipping 
a  Pratikd  is  worshipping  something  which  as  a  substi- 
tute, is,  in  some  one  or  more  respects,  like  the  Brahman 
more  and  more,  but  is  not  the  Brah?na?i.  Along  with 
the  Pratikds  mentioned  in  the  Sridis  there  are  various 
others  to  be  found  in  the  Purdnas  and  the  Tantras. 
In  this  kind  of  P rat ikd-wor ship  may  be  included  all  the 
various  forms  of  Pitri-worship  and  Deva-worship. 

Now  worshipping  Isvara  and  Him  alone  is  Bhakti  j 
the  worship  of  anything  else,  Deva^  or  Pitri,  or  any 
other  being  cannot  be  Bhakti.  The  various  kinds  of 
worship  of  the  various  Devas  are  all  to  be  included  in 
ritualistic  Karma^  which  gives  to  the  worshipper  only 
a  particular  result  in  the  form  of  some  celestial  enjoy- 


BHAKTI-VOGA.  28/ 

ment,  but  can  neither  give  rise  to  Bhaktt  nor  lead  to 
Mukti.  One  thing,  therefore,  has  to  be  carefully- 
borne  in  mind.  If,  as  it  may  happen  in  some  cases, 
the  highly  philosophic  ideal  supreme  Brahman  is  Him- 
self dragged  down  by  Pratikd-7uorship  to  the  level  of 
the  Pratikdy  and  the  Pratikd  itself  is  taken  to  be  the 
Atma?t  of  the  worshipper,  or  his  Antaraydmin^  the  wor- 
shipper gets  entirely  misled,  as  no  Pratikd  can  really 
be  the  Atman  of  the  worshipper.  But  where  Brahman 
Himself  is  the  object  of  worship,  and  the  Pratikd 
stands  only  as  a  substitute  or  a  suggestion  thereof, 
that  is  to  say,  where  through  the  Pratikd  the  omni- 
present Brahmajt  is  worshipped  —  the  Pratikd  itself 
being  idealized  into  the  cause  of  all,  th.Q  Brahffian  — 
the  worship  is  positively  beneficial;  nay,  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  all  mankind,  until  they  have  all 
got  beyond  the  primary  or  preparatory  state  of  the 
mind  in  regard  to  worship.  When,  therefore,  any 
gods  or  other  beings  are  worshipped  in  and  for  them- 
selves, such  worship  is  only  a  ritualistic  Kar?na  ;  and 
as  a  Vidyd  (science)  it  gives  us  only  the  fruit  belong- 
ing to  that  particular  Vidyd ;  but  when  the  Devas  or 
any  other  beings  are  looked  upon  as  Brahmam  and  wor- 
shipped, the  result  obtained  is  the  same  as  by  the  wor- 
shipping of  livara.  This  explains  how,  in  many  cases, 
both  in  the  ^rutis  and  the  Smritis^  a  god,  or  a  sage, 
or  some  other  extraordinary  being  is  taken  up  and 
lifted,  as  it  were,  out  of  its  own  nature  and  idealized 
into  Brahman^  and  is  then  worshipped.  Says  the 
Advaitin^  ''Is  not  everything  Brahman  when  the  name 


288  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

and  the  form  have  been  removed  from  it."  "  Is  not 
He,  the  Lord,  the  innermost  self  of  every  one  ? "  says 
the  Visishtddvaitin.  "The  fruition  of  even  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Adityas^  etc,  Brahman  Himself  bestows, 
because  he  is  the  Ruler  of  all,"  says  Sankara  in  his 
Brahma- Sutra-Bhdshya.  **  Here  in  this  way  does  Brah- 
man become  the  object  of  worship,  because  He,  as 
Brahman^  is  superposed  on  the  Pratikds^  just  as 
Vishnu,  etc.,  are  superposed  upon  images,  etc." 

The  same  ideas  apply  to  the  worship  of  the  Pratimds 
as  do  to  that  of  the  Fratikds ;  that  is  to  say,  if  the 
image  stands  for  a  god  or  a  saint,  the  worship  is  not 
the  result  of  Bhaktiy  and  does  not  lead  to  liberation ; 
but  if  it  stands  for  the  one  God,  the  worship  thereof 
will  bring  both  Bhakti  and  Mukti.  Of  the  principal 
religions  of  the  world  we  see  Vedantism,  Buddhism, 
and  certain  forms  of  Christianity  freely  using  images; 
only  two  religions,  Mahomedanism  and  Protestanism, 
refuse  such  help.  Yet  the  Mahomedans  use  the  graves 
of  their  saints  and  martyrs  almost  in  the  place  of 
images;  the  Protestants,  in  rejecting  all  concrete  helps 
to  religion,  are  drifting  away  every  year  farther  and 
farther  from  spirituality,  and  at  present  there  is 
scarcely  any  difference  between  the  advanced  Protest- 
ants and  the  followers  of  Auguste  Comte,  or  the 
Agnostics  who  preach  ethics  alone.  Again,  in 
Christianity  and  Mahomedanism  whatever  exists  of 
image-w^orship  is  made  to  fall  under  that  category  in 
which  the  Pratikd  or  the  Prattmd  is  worshipped  in 
its'ilf  but  not  as  a  "  help  to  the  vision  "  of  God;  there- 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  289 

fore  it  is  at  best  only  of  the  nature  of  rituSiVistic  Karmas 
and  cannot  produce  either  Bhakti  or  Mukti.  In  this 
form  of  image  worship  the  allegiance  of  the  soul  is 
given  to  other  things  than  Isvara,  and,  therefore,  such 
use  of  images  or  graves,  of  temples  or  tombs,  is  real 
idolatry;  yet  it  is  in  itself  neither  sinful  nor  wicked  — 
it  is  a  rite  —  a  Karma^  and  worshippers  must  and  will 
get  the  fruit  thereof. 

The  Chosen  Ideal. 

The  next  thing  to  be  considered  is  what  we  know  as 
Ishta  Nishthd.  One  who  aspires  to  be  a  Bhakta  must 
know  that  "so  many  opinions  are  so  many  ways." 
He  must  know  that  all  the  various  sects  of  the  various 
religions  are  the  various  manifestations  of  the  glory 
of  the  same  Lord.  "They  call  You  by  so  many 
names;  they  divide  You,  as  it  were,  by  different 
names,  yet  in  each  one  of  these  is  to  be  found  Your 

omnipotence You  reach  the  worshipper  through  all 

of  these;  neither  is  there  any  specialty  of  time  so  long 
as  the  soul  has  intense  love  for  You... You  are  so  easy 
of  approach;  it  is  my  misfortune  that  I  cannot  love 
You."  Not  only  this,  the  Bhakta  must  take  care  not 
to  hate,  nor  even  to  criticize,  those  radiant  sons  of 
light  who  are  the  founders  of  various  sects;  he  has  not 
even  to  hear  them  spoken  ill  of.  Very  few,  indeed, 
are  those  who  are  at  once  the  possessors  of  an  exten- 
sive sympathy  and  power  of  appreciation  as  well  as  an 
intensity  of  love.  We  find  as  a  rule  that  liberal  and 
sympathetic  sects  lose  the  intensity  of  religious  feeling, 
19 


2QO  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

and  in  their  hands  religion  is  apt  to  degenerate  into  a 
kind  of  politico-social  club  life.  On  the  other  hand 
intensely  narrow  sectaries,  whilst  displaying  a  very 
commendable  love  of  their  own  ideals,  are  seen  to  have 
acquired  every  particle  of  that  love  by  hating  every 
one  who  is  not  exactly  of  the  same  opinion  as  they  are. 
Would  to  God  that  this  world  was  full  of  men  who 
were  as  intense  in  their  love  as  world-wide  in  their  sym- 
pathies! But  such  are  only  few  and  far  between.  Yet 
we  know  that  it  is  practicable  to  educate  large  numbers 
of  human  beings  into  the  ideal  of  a  wonderful  blending 
of  both  the  width  and  intensity  of  love;  and  the  way 
to  do  that  is  by  this  path  of  the  Ishta  Nishthd  or  the 
"chosen  ideal."  Every  sect  of  every  religion  pre- 
sents only  one  ideal  of  its  own  to  mankind,  but  the 
eternal  Vedantic  religion  opens  to  mankind  an  infinite 
number  of  doors  for  ingress  into  the  inner  shrine  of 
Divinity,  and  places  before  humanity  an  almost  inex- 
haustible array  of  ideals,  there  being  in  each  of  them  a 
manifestation  of  the  Eternal  One.  With  the  kindest 
solicitude  the  Vedanta  points  out  to  aspiring  men  and 
women  the  numerous  roads  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock 
of  the  realities  of  human  life  by  the  glorious  sons,  or 
human  manifestations,  of  God  in  the  past  and  in  the 
present,  and  stands  with  outstretched  arms  to  welcome 
all  —  to  welcome  even  those  that  are  yet  to  be  —  to 
that  Home  of  Truth  and  that  Ocean  of  Bliss  wherein 
the  human  soul  liberated  out  of  the  net  of  Maya  may 
transport  itself  with  perfect  freedom  and  with  eternal 
joy. 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  29 1 

Bhakti-Yoga^  therefore,  lays  on  us  the  imperative 
command  not  to  hate  or  deny  any  one  of  the  various 
paths  that  lead  to  salvation.  Yet  the  growing  plant 
must  be  hedged  around  to  protect  it  until  it  has  grown 
into  a  tree.  The  tender  plant  of  spirituality  will  die  if 
exposed  too  early  to  the  action  of  a  constant  change 
of  ideas  and  ideals.  Many  people,  in  the  name  of 
what  may  be  called  religious  liberalism,  may  be  seen 
to  be  feeding  their  idle  curiosity  with  a  continuous 
succession  of  different  ideals.  With  them  hearing  new 
things  grows  into  a  sort  of  disease,  a  sort  of  religious 
drink-mania.  They  want  to  hear  new  things  just  to 
get  a  sort  of  temporary  nervous  excitement,  and,  when 
one  such  exciting  influence  has  had  its  effect  on  them, 
they  are  ready  for  another.  Religion  is  with  these 
people  a  sort  of  intellectual  opium-eating,  and  there  it 
ends.  "  There  is  another  sort  of  men,"  says  Bhag- 
avdn  Rdmakrishna^  **  who  are  like  the  pearl  oyster  of 
the  story.  The  pearl  oyster  leaves  its  bed  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea,  and  comes  up  to  the  surface  to  catch 
the  rain  water  when  the  star  Svdti  is  in  the  ascendant. 
It  floats  about  on  the  surface  of  the  sea  with  its  shell 
wide  open  until  it  has  succeeded  in  catching  a  drop  of 
the  rain  water,  and  then  it  dives  deep  down  to  its  seabed 
and  there  rests  until  it  has  succeeded  in  fashioning  a 
beautiful  pearl  out  of  that  rain  drop." 

This  is  indeed  the  most  poetical  and  forcible  way  in 
which  the  theory  of  Ishta  Nishthd  has  ever  been  put. 
This  Eka  Nishthd^  or  devotion  to  one  ideal  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  beginner  in  the  practice  of  religious 


292  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

devovjon.  He  must  say  with  Hanuman  in  the  Ramd- 
ya?ia  --  "  Though  I  know  that  the  Lord  of  Sri  and  the 
Lord  of  Janaki  are  one  and  the  same  manifestation  of 
the  same  Supreme  Being,  yet  my  all  in  all  is  the  lotus- 
eyed  Rama;"  or,  as  was  said  by  the  sage  Tulasidas,  he 
must  say  —  "Take  the  sweetness  of  all,  sit  with  all, 
take  the  name  of  all,  say  yea,  yea,  but  keep  your  seat 
firm."  Then,  if  the  devotional  aspirant  is  sincere,  out 
of  this  little  seed  will  come  a  gigantic  tree  like  the 
Indian  banyan,  sending  branch  after  branch  and  root 
after  root  to  all  sides,  till  it  covers  the  entire  field  of 
religion.  Thus  will  the  true  devotee  realize  that  He 
who  was  his  own  ideal  in  life  is  worshipped  in  all  ideals 
by  all  sects,  under  all  names,  and  through  all  forms. 

The  Method  and  the  Means. 

In  regard  to  the  method  and  the  means  of  BhaktU 
Yoga  we  read  in  the  commentary  of  Bhagavdn  Rdmdnuja 
on  the  Vcddnta  Sutras:  —  "The  attaining  of  That 
comes  through  discrimination,  controlling  the  pas- 
sions, practice,  sacrificial  work,  purity,  strength,  and 
suppression  of  excessive  joy."  Viveka  or  discrimina- 
tion is,  according  to  Rdf?tdnuja,  the  discriminating, 
among  other  things,  the  pure  food  from  the  impure. 
According  to  him,  food  becomes  impure  from  three 
causes:  namely,  (i)  by  the  nature  of  the  food  itself,  as 
in  the  case  of  garlic,  etc. ;  (2)  owing  to  its  coming  from 
wicked  and  accursed  persons;  and  (3)  from  physical 
impurities,  such  as  dirt,  or  hair,  etc.     The  ^rutis  say. 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  293 

"  When  the  food  is  pure  the  Sattva  element  gets 
purified,  the  memory  becomes  unwavering,"  and 
Ramanuja  quotes  this  from  the  Chhdndogya  Upanishad. 

The  question  of  food  has  always  been  one  of  the 
most  vital  with  the  Bhaktas.  Apart  from  the  extrava- 
gance into  which  some  of  the  Bhakti  sects  have  run, 
there  is  a  great  truth  underlying  this  question  of  food. 
We  must  remember  that,  according  to  the  Sdnkhya 
philosophy  the  sattva^  7'ajas,  and  ta/nas^  which  in  the 
state  of  homogeneous  equilibrium  form  the  Frakrtti2in6 
in  the  heterogenous  disturbed  condition  form  the  uni- 
verse, are  both  the  substance  and  the  quality  of 
Prakriti.  As  such  they  are  the  materials  out  of  which 
every  human  form  has  been  manufactured,  and  the 
predominance  of  the  sattva  material  is  what  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  spiritual  development.  The  materials 
which  we  receive  through  our  food  into  our  body-struc- 
ture go  a  great  way  to  determine  our  mental  constitu- 
tion; therefore  the  food  we  eat  has  to  be  particularl)r 
taken  care  of.  However,  in  this  matter  as  in  others, 
the  fanaticism  into  which  the  disciples  invariably  fall 
Is  not  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  masters. 

And  this  discrimination  of  food  is  after  all  of  second- 
ary importance.  The  very  same  passage  quoted  above 
is  explained  by  Sankara  in  his  Bhdshya  on  the  Upani- 
shads  in  a  different  way  by  giving  an  entirely  different 
meaning  to  the  word  dhdra,  translated  generally  as 
food.  According  to  him,  **  That  which  is  gathered  in 
is  dhdra.  The  knowledge  of  the  sensations  such  as 
sound,  etc.,  is  gathered   in  for  the  enjoyment  of  the 


294  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

enjoyer  (Self);  the  purification  of  the  knowledge  which 
gathers  in  the  perception  of  the  senses  is  the  purifying 
of  the  food  (d/idra).  The  word  *  purification-of-food  * 
means  the  acquiring  of  the  knowledge  of  sensations 
untouched  by  the  defects  of  attachment,  aversion,  and 
delusion ;  such  is  the  meaning.  Therefore,  such  knowl- 
edge or  dhdra  being  purified  the  sattva  material  of  the 
possessor  of  it  —  the  internal  organ  —  will  become 
purified,  and  the  sattva  being  purified  an  unbroken 
memory  of  the  infinite  One  who  has  been  known  in  His 
real  nature  will  result." 

These  two  explanations  are  apparently  conflicting, 
yet  both  are  true  and  necessary.  The  manipulating 
and  controlling  of  what  may  be  called  the  finer  body, 
viz.^  the  mind,  are  no  doubt  higher  functions  than  the 
controlling  of  the  grosser  body  of  flesh.  But  the  con- 
trol of  the  grosser  is  absolutely  necessary  to  enable  one 
to  arrive  at  the  control  of  the  finer.  The  beginner, 
therefore,  must  pay  particular  attention  to  all  such 
dietetic  rules  as  have  come  down  from  the  line  of  his 
accredited  teachers;  but  the  extravagant,  meaningless 
fanaticism,  which  has  driven  religion  entirely  to  the 
kitchen,  as  may  be  noticed  in  the  case  of  many  of  our 
sects,  without  any  hope  of  the  noble  truth  of  that 
religion  ever  coming  out  to  the  sunlight  of  spirituality, 
is  a  peculiar  sort  of  pure  and  simple  materialism.  It 
is  neither  Gndna,  nor  Bhakti^  nor  Karma  ;  it  is  a  spe- 
cial kind  of  lunacy,  and  those  who  pin  their  souls  to  it 
are  more  likely  to  go  to  lunatic  asylums  than  to 
Brahma-loka.     So  it  stands  to  reason  that  discrimina- 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  295 

tion  in  the  choice  of  food  is  necessary  for  the  attain- 
ment of  this  higher  state  of  mental  composition  which 
can  not  be  easily  obtained  otherwise. 

Controlling  the  passions  is  the  next  thing  to  be 
attended  to.  To  restrain  the  Indriyas  (organs)  from 
going  towards  the  objects  of  the  senses,  to  control  them 
and  bring  them  under  the  guidance  of  the  will  is  the  very 
central  virtue  in  religious  culture.  Then  comes  the 
practice  of  self-restraint  and  self-denial.  All  the 
immense  possibilities  of  divine  realisation  in  the  soul 
cannot  get  actualised  without  struggle  and  without 
such  practice  on  the  part  of  the  aspiring  devotee. 
**  The  mind  must  always  think  of  the  Lord."  It  is 
very  hard  at  first  to  compel  the  mind  to  think  of  the 
Lord  always,  but  with  every  new  effort  the  power  to  do 
so  grows  stronger  in  us.  "  By  practice,  oh  son  of 
Kunti,  and  by  non-attachment  is  It  attained,"  says 
Sri  Krishna  in  the  Gitd. 

Purity  is  absolutely  the  basic  work,  the  bed-rock 
upon  which  the  whole  Bhakti-building  rests.  Cleansing 
the  external  body  and  discriminating  the  food  are  both 
easy,  but  without  internal  cleanliness  and  without 
purity,  these  external  observances  are  of  no  value 
whatsoever.  In  the  list  of  the  qualities  conducive  to 
purity,  as  given  by  Ramanuja,  there  are  enumerated, 
Satya,  truthfulness;  Arjava^  sincerity;  Dayd,  doing 
good  to  others  without  any  gain  to  one's  self;  Ahijiisd^ 
not  injuring  others  by  thought  or  word  or  deed; 
Abhidhyd^  not  coveting  other's  goods,  not  thinking  vain 
thoughts,   and   not    brooding    over    injuries  received 


296  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

from  another.  In  this  list  the  one  idea  that  deserves 
special  notice  is  Ahimsdy  non-injury  to  others.  This 
duty  of  non-injury,  so  to  speak  of  it,  is  obUgatory  on 
us  in  relation  to  all  beings;  as  with  some,  it  does  not 
simply  mean  the  not-injuring  of  human  beings  and 
mercilessness  towards  the  lower  animals ;  nor,  as  with 
some  others,  does  it  mean  the  protecting  of  cats  and 
dogs  and  the  feeding  of  ants  with  sugar,  with  liberty 
to  injure  brother  man  in  every  horrible  way.  It  is 
remarkable  that  almost  every  good  idea  in  this  world 
can  be  carried  to  a  disgusting  extreme.  A  good  prac- 
tice carried  to  an  extreme  and  worked  in  accordance 
with  the  letter  of  the  law  becomes  a  positive  evil. 

The  test  of  Ahtmsd  is  absence  of  jealousy.  Any  man 
may  do  a  good  deed  or  make  a  good  gift  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment,  or  under  the  pressure  of  some  super- 
stition or  priestcraft;  but  the  real  lover  of  mankind  is 
he  who  is  jealous  of  none.  The  so-called  great  men  of 
the  world  may  all  be  seen  to  become  jealous  of  each 
other  for  a  small  name,  for  a  little  fame,  and  for  a  few 
bits  of  gold.  So  long  as  this  jealousy  exists  in  a  heart 
it  is  far  away  from  the  perfection  of  Ahtmsd.  The 
cow  does  not  eat  meat,  nor  does  the  sheep.  Are  they 
great  Yogins,  great  non-injurers  [Ahimsakas)  ?  Any 
fool  may  abstain  from  eating  this  or  that;  surely  that 
gives  him  no  more  distinction  than  to  herbivorous  ani- 
mals. The  man  who  will  mercilessly  cheat  widows  and 
orphans,  and  do  the  vilest  deeds  for  money,  is  worse 
than  any  brute,  even  if  he  lives  entirely  on  grass  alone. 
The  man  whose  heart  never  cherishes  even  the  thought 


BHAKTI-YOGA.  297 

of  injury  to  any  one,  who  rejoices  at  the  prosperity  of 
even  his  greatest  enemy,  that  man  is  the  Bhakta^  he  is 
the  Yogi/iy  he  is  the  Guru  of  all,  even  though  he  lives 
every  day  of  his  life  on  the  flesh  of  swine.  Therefore 
we  must  always  remember  that  external  practices  have 
value  only  as  helps  to  develop  internal  purity.  It  is 
better  to  have  internal  purity  alone  when  minute  atten- 
tion to  external  observances  is  not  practicable.  But 
woe  unto  the  man  and  woe  unto  the  nation,  that  for- 
gets the  real,  internal,  spiritual  essentials  of  religion, 
and  mechanically  clutches  with  death-like  grasp  all  the 
external  forms  and  never  lets  them  go.  The  forms 
have  value  only  so  far  as  they  are  the  expressions  of 
the  life  within.  If  they  have  ceased  to  express  life, 
crush  them  out  without  mercy. 

The  next  means  to  the  attainment  of  Bhaktl-  Yoga  is 
strength  (aiiavasddd) .  "  This  Atmaii  is  not  to  be 
attained  by  the  weak,"  says  the  Sruti.  Both  physical 
weakness  and  mental  weakness  are  meant  here.  "  The 
strong,  the  hardy,"  are  the  only  fit  students.  What 
can  puny,  little,  decrepit  things  do  ?  They  will  break 
to  pieces,  whenever  the  mysterious  forces  of  the  body 
and  mind  are  even  slightly  awakened  by  the  practice 
of  any  of  the  Yogas.  It  is  "  the  young,  the  healthy, 
the  strong  "  that  can  score  success.  Physical  strength, 
therefore,  is  absolutely  necessary.  It  is  the  strong 
body  alone  that  can  bear  the  shock  of  re-action  result- 
ing from  the  attempt  to  control  the  organs.  He  who 
wants  to  become  a  Bhakta  must  be  strong,  must  be 
healthy.     When  the   miserably  weak   attempt  any  of 


298  BHAKTI-YOGA. 

the  VogaSf  they  are  Hkely  to  get  some  incurable  malady, 
or  they  weaken  their  minds.     Voluntarily  weakening 
the  body  is  really  no  prescription  for  spiritual  enlighten- 
ment. ♦ 

The  mentally  weak  also  cannot  succeed  in  attaining 
the  Atnian.  The  person  who  aspires  to  be  a  Bhakta 
must  be  cheerful.  It  is  the  cheerful  mind  that  is  per- 
severing. It  is  the  strong  mind  that  hews  its  way 
through  a  thousand  difficulties.  And  this,  the  hardest 
task  of  all,  the  cutting  of  our  way  out  of  the  net  of 
Maya,  is  the  work  reserved  only  for  giant  wills. 

Yet  at  the  same  time  excessive  mirth  should  be 
avoided  {a?iudd/ia?'sha).  Excessive  mirth  makes  us 
unfit  for  serious  thought.  It  also  fritters  away  the 
energies  of  the  mind  in  vain.  The  stronger  the  will, 
the  less  the  yielding  to  the  sway  of  the  emotions. 
Excessive  hilarity  is  quite  as  objectionable  as  too 
much  of  sad  seriousness,  and  all  religious  realisation  is 
possible  only  when  the  mind  is  in  a  steady,  peaceful 
condition  of  harmonious  equilibrium. 

It  is  thus  that  one  may  begin  to  learn  how  to  love 
cne  Lord. 


A 


PARA-BHAKTI 

OR 

SUPREME   DEVOTION 


iml 


PARA-BHAKTI 

OR 

SUPREME  DEVOTION 


The  Preparatory  Renunciation. 

We  have  now  finished  the  consideration  of  what  may 
be  called  the  preparatory  Bhakti^  and  are  entering  on 
the  study  of  the  Pard-Bhakti^  or  supreme  devotion. 
We  have  to  speak  of  a  preparation  to  the  practice  of 
this  Pard-Bhakti.  All  such  preparations  are  intended 
only  for  the  purification  of  the  soul.  The  repetition 
of  names,  the  rituals,  the  forms,  and  the  symbols,  all 
these  various  things  are  for  the  purification  of  the  soul. 
The  greatest  purifier  among  all  such  things,  a  purifier 
without  which  no  one  enters  the  regions  of  this  higher 
devotion  (Fard-B/iakti)^  is  renunciation.  It  is  a  fright- 
ening thing  to  many;  yet,  without  it,  there  cannot  be 
any  spiritual  growth.  In  all  our  Yogas  this  renuncia- 
tion is  necessary.  This  is  the  stepping  stone  and  the 
real  centre  and  the  real  heart  of  all  spiritual  culture  — 
renunciation.  This  is  religion  —  renunciation.  When 
the  human  soul  draws  back  from  the  things  of  the 
world  and  tries  to  go  into  deeper  things;  when  man, 

[301] 


302  parA-bhakti, 

the  spirit  which  is  here  somewhat  being  concretised 
and  materialised,  understands  that  he  is  thereby  going 
to  be  destroyed  and  to  be  reduced  almost  into  mere 
matter,  and  turns  his  face  away  from  matter;. then 
begins  renunciation,  then  begins  real  spiritual  growth. 
The  Karma-  Yogiti  s  renunciation  is  in  the  shape  of 
giving  up  all  the  fruits  of  his  actions ;  he  is  not  attached 
to  the  results  of  his  labors;  he  does  not  care  for  any 
reward  here  or  hereafter.  The  Rdja-Yogm  knows 
that  the  whole  of  nature  is  intended  for  the  soul  to 
acquire  experience,  and  that  the  result  of  all  the  expe- 
riences of  the  soul  is  for  it  to  become  aware  of  its 
eternal  separateness  from  nature.  The  human  soul 
has  to  understand  and  realize  that  it  has  been  spirit, 
and  not  matter,  through  eternity;  and  that  this  con- 
junction of  it  with  matter  is  and  can  be  only  for  a 
time.  The  Rdja-Yogin  learns  the  lesson  of  renuncia- 
tion through  his  own  experience  of  nature.  The 
Jndna-Yogin  has  the  harshest  of  all  renunciations  to  go 
through,  as  he  has  to  realise  from  the  very  first  that 
the  whole  of  this  solid-looking  nature  is  all  an  illusion. 
He  has  to  understand  that  all  that  is  any  kind  of  mani- 
festation of  power  in  nature  belongs  to  the  soul,  and 
not  to  nature.  He  has  to  know,  from  the  very  start, 
that  all  knowledge  and  all  experiences  are  in  the  soul, 
and  not  in  nature;  so  he  has  at  once  and  by  the  sheer 
force  of  rational  conviction  to  tear  himself  oft  from  all 
bondage  to  nature.  He  lets  nature  and  all  her  things 
go,  he  lets  them  vanish  and  tries  to  stand  alone' 
Of  all  renunciations,  the  most  natural,  so  to  say,  is 


PARA-BHAKTI.  303 

that  of  the  BhaJdi-  Yogin.  Here  there  is  no  violence, 
nothing  to  give  up,  nothing  to  tear  off,  as  it  were,  from 
ourselves,  nothing  from  which  we  have  violently  to 
separate  ourselves,  the  Bhakta  s  renunciation  is  easy, 
smooth,  flowing,  and  as  natural  as  the  things  around 
us.  We  see  the  manifestation  of  this  sort  of  renuncia- 
tion, although  more  or  less  in  the  shape  of  caricatures, 
every  day  around  us.  A  man  begins  to  love  a  woman; 
after  awhile  he  loves  another,  and  the  first  woman  he 
lets  go.  She  drops  out  of  his  mind  smoothly,  gently, 
without  his  feeling  the  want  of  her  at  all.  A  woman 
loves  a  man;  she  then  begins  to  love  another  man,  and 
the  first  one  drops  off  from  her  mind  quite  naturally. 
A  man  loves  his  own  city,  then  he  begins  to  love  his 
country,  and  the  intense  love  for  his  little  city  drops 
off  smoothly,  naturally.  Again,  a  man  learns  to  love 
the  whole  world;  his  love  for  his  country,  his  intense, 
fanatical  patriotism  drops  off,  without  hurting  him, 
without  any  manifestation  of  violence.  Uncultured 
man  loves  the  pleasures  of  the  senses  intensely;  as  he 
becomes  cultured  he  begins  to  love  intellectual  pleas- 
ures, and  his  sense-enjoyments  become  less  and  less. 
No  man  can  enjoy  a  meal  with  the  same  gusto  of 
pleasure  as  a  dog  or  a  wolf,  but  those  pleasures,  which 
a  man  gets  from  intellectual  experiences  and  achieve- 
ments, the  dog  can  never  enjoy.  At  first,  pleasure  is 
in  association  with  the  lower  senses;  but  as  soon  as 
an  animal  reaches  a  higher  plane  of  existence,  the 
lower  kind  of  pleasures  become  less  intense.  In  human 
society    the    nearer   the    man    is    to    the   animal,    the 


304  PARA-BHAKTI. 

Stronger  is  his  pleasure  in  the  senses;  and  the  higher 
and  the  more  cultured  the  man  is,  the  greater  is  his 
pleasure  in  intellectual  and  such  other  finer  pursuits. 
So,  when  a  man  gets  even  higher  than  the  plane  of  the 
intellect,  higher  than  that  of  mere  thought,  when  he 
get  to  the  plane  of  spirituality  and  of  divine  inspiration, 
he  finds  there  a  state  of  bliss,  compared  to  which  all 
the  pleasures  of  the  senses,  or  even  of  the  intellect, 
are  as  nothing.  When  the  moon  shines  brightly  all 
the  stars  become  dim,  and  when  the  sun  shines  the 
moon  herself  becomes  dim.  The  renunciation  neces- 
sary for  the  attainment  of  Bhakti  is  not  obtained  by 
killing  anything,  but  just  comes  in  as  naturally  as,  in 
the  presence  of  an  increasingly  stronger  light,  the  less 
intense  ones  become  dimmer  and  dimmer  until  they 
vanish  away  completely.  So  this  love  of  the  pleasures 
of  the  senses  and  of  the  intellect  is  all  made  dim,  and 
thrown  aside  and  cast  into  the  shade  by  the  love  of 
God  Himself.  That  love  of  God  grows  and  assumes 
a  form  which  is  called  Fard-B/iakti,  or  supreme  devo- 
tion. Forms  vanish,  rituals  fly  away,  books  are  super- 
seded, images,  temples,  churches,  religions,  and  sects, 
countries  and  nationalities,  all  these  little  limitations 
and  bondages  fall  off  by  their  own  nature  from  him 
who  knows  this  love  of  God.  Nothing  remains  to  bind 
him  or  fetter  his  freedom.  A  ship,  all  of  a  sudden, 
comes  near  a  magnetic  rock  and  its  iron  bolts  and 
bars  are  all  attracted  and  drawn  out,  and  the  planks 
get  loosened  and  freely  float  on  the  water.  Divine 
grace  thus  loosens  the  binding  bolts  and  bars  of  the 


PARA-BHAKTI.  305 

soul,  and  it  becomes  free.  So,  in  this  renunciation 
auxiliary  to  devotion,  there  is  no  harshness,  no  dry- 
ness, no  struggle,  no  repression  or  suppression.  The 
Bhakta  has  not  to  suppress  any  single  one  of  his  emo- 
tions, he  only  strives  to  intensify  them  and  direct  them 
to  God. 

The  Bhakta's  Renunciation  Results  from  Love. 

We  see  love  everywhere  in  nature.  Whatever  in 
society  is  good  and  great  and  sublime,  is  the  working 
out  of  that  love;  whatever  in  society  is  very  bad,  nay 
diabolical,  is  also  the  ill-directed  working  out  of  the 
same  emotion  of  love.  It  is  this  same  emotion  that 
gives  as  the  pure  and  holy  conjugal  love  between  hus- 
band and  wife,  as  well  as  the  sort  of  love  which  goes 
to  satisfy  the  lowest  forms  of  animal  passion.  The 
emotion  is  the  same,  but  its  manifestation  is  different 
in  the  different  cases.  It  is  the  same  feeling  of  love, 
well  or  ill-directed,  that  impels  one  man  to  do  good 
and  to  give  all  he  has  to  the  poor,  while  it  makes 
another  man  cut  the  throats  of  his  brethren  and  take 
away  all  their  possessions.  The  former  loves  others 
as  much  as  the  latter  loves  himself.  The  direction  of 
the  love  is  bad  in  the  case  of  this  latter,  but  it  is  right 
and  proper  in  the  other  case.  The  same  fire  that 
cooks  a  meal  for  us  may  burn  a  child,  and  it  is  no  fault 
of  the  fire  if  it  did  so;  the  difference  lies  in  the  way  in 
which  it  is  used.  Therefore,  love,  the  intense  longing 
for  association,  the  strong  desire  on  the  part  of  two  to 
become  one,  and,  it  may  be  after  all,  of  all  to  become 
ao 


306  PARA-BHAKTI. 

merged  in  one,  is  being  manifested  everywhere  in  higher 
or  lower  forms  as  the  case  may  be.  Bhakti-  Yoga  is  the 
science  of  higher  love;  it  shows  us  how  to  direct  it;  it 
shows  us  how  to  control  it,  how  to  manage  it,  how  to 
use  it,  how  to  give  it  a  new  aim,  as  it  were,  and  from 
it  obtain  the  highest  and  most  glorious  results,  that  is, 
how  to  make  it  lead  us  to  spiritual  blessedness.  Bhakti- 
Yoga  does  not  say  "Give  up;"  it  only  says  "Love; 
love  the  Highest ;' '  and  everything  low  naturally  falls  off 
from  him  the  object  of  whose  love  is  this  Highest. 

"  I  cannot  tell  anything  about  Thee,  except  that 
Thou  art  my  love.  Thou  art  beautiful,  Oh  Thou  art 
beautiful!  Thou  art  beauty  itself."  What  is  after 
all  really  required  of  us  in  this  Yoga  is  that  our  thirst 
after  the  beautiful  should  be  directed  to  God.  What 
is  the  beauty  in  the  human  face,  in  the  sky,  in  the 
stars,  and  in  the  moon?  It  is  only  the  partial  appre- 
hension of  the  real  all-embracing  Divine  Beauty.  "  He 
shining,  everything  shines.  It  is  through  His  light 
that  all  things  shine."  Take  this  high  position  of 
Bhakti  which  makes  you  forget  at  once  all  your  little 
personalities.  Take  yourself  away  from  all  the  world's 
little  selfish  clingings.  Do  not  look  upon  humanity  as 
the  centre  of  all  your  human  and  higher  interests. 
Stand  as  a  witness,  as  a  student,  and  observe  the  phe- 
nomena of  nature.  Have  the  feeling  of  personal  non- 
attachment  with  regard  to  man,  and  see  how  this  mighty 
feeling  of  love  is  working  itself  out  in  the  world.  Some- 
times a  little  friction  is  produced,  but  that  is  only  in 
the  course  of  the  struggle  to  attain  the  higher  real 


parA-bhakti.  307 

love.  Sometimes  there  is  a  little  fight,  or  a  little  fall; 
but  it  is  all  only  along  the  way.  Stand  aside,  and 
freely  let  these  frictions  come.  You  feel  the  frictions 
only  when  you  are  in  the  current  of  the  world,  but  when 
you  are  outside  of  it  simply  as  a  witness  and  as  a  stu- 
dent, you  will  be  able  to  see  that  there  are  millions  and 
millions  of  channels  in  which  God  is  manifesting  Him- 
self as  Love. 

"Wherever  there  is  any  bliss,  even  though  in  the 
most  sensual  of  things,  there  is  a  spark  of  that  Eternal 
Bliss  which  is  the  Lord  Himself."  Even  in  the  lowest 
kinds  of  attraction  there  is  the  germ  of  Divine  love. 
One  of  the  names  of  the  Lord  in  Sanskrit  is  Hari^  and 
this  means  that  He  attracts  all  things  to  Himself.  His 
is  in  fact  the  only  attraction  worthy  of  human  hearts. 
Who  can  attract  a  soul  really?  Only  He!  Do  you 
think  dead  matter  can  truly  attract  the  soul?  It  never 
did,  and  never  will.  When  you  see  a  man  going  after 
a  beautiful  face,  do  you  think  that  it  is  the  handful  of 
arranged  material  molecules  which  really  attracts  the 
man?  Not  at  all.  Behind  those  material  particles 
there  must  be  and  is  the  play  of  divine  influence  and 
divine  love.  The  ignorant  man  does  not  know  it;  but 
yet,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  he  is  attracted  by 
it  and  it  alone.  So  even  the  lowest  forms  of  attraction 
derive  their  power  from  God  Himself.  "  None,  O 
beloved,  ever  loved  the  husband  for  the  husband's 
sake;  it  is  the  Atman^  the  Lord,  who  is  inside,  and  for 
His  sake  the  husband  is  loved."  Loving  wives  may 
know   this  or   they  may  not;  it   is  true  all  the  same 


308  PARA-BHAKTI. 

"  None,  O  beloved,  ever  loved  the  wife  for  the  wife's 
sake,  but  it  is  the  Self  within  the  wife  that  is  loved." 
Similarly  no  one  loves  a  child  or  anything  else  in  the 
world  except  on  account  of  Him  who  is  within.  The 
Lord  is  the  great  magnet,  and  we  are  all  like  iron 
filings;  all  of  us  are  being  constantly  attracted  by 
Him,  and  all  of  us  are  struggling  to  reach  Him.  All 
this  struggling  of  ours  in  this  world  is  surely  not 
intended  for  selfish  ends.  Fools  do  not  know  what 
they  are  doing;  the  work  of  their  life  is  all  to  approach 
the  great  magnet.  All  the  tremendous  struggling  and 
fighting  in  life  is  intended  to  make  us  go  to  Him  ulti- 
mately and  be  one  with  Him. 

However,  the  Bhakti-  Yogin  knows  the  meaning  of 
life's  struggles;  he  understands  it.  He  has  passed 
through  a  long  series  of  these  struggles,  and  knows  what 
they  mean,  and  earnestly  desires  to  be  free  from  the 
friction  thereof;  he  wants  to  avoid  the  clash  and  go 
direct  to  the  centre  of  all  attractions,  the  great  Hari. 
This  is  the  renunciation  of  the  Bhakta;  this  mighty 
attraction,  in  the  direction  of  God  makes  all  other 
attractions  vanish  for  him;  this  mighty  infinite  love  of 
God  which  enters  his  heart  leaves  no  place  for  any 
other  love  to  live  there.  How  can  it  be  otherwise? 
Bhakti  fills  his  heart  with  the  divine  waters  of  the  ocean 
of  love,  which  is  God  Himself;  there  is  no  place  there 
for  little  loves.  That  is  to  say,  the  Bhakta  s  renuncia- 
tion is  that  vairdgya,  or  non-attachment  for  all  things 
that  are  not  God,  which  results  from  anurdga^  or  great 
attachment  to  God. 


parA-bhakti.  309 

This  is  the  ideal  preparation  for  the  attainment  of 
the  supreme  Bhakti.  When  this  renunciation  comes, 
the  gate  opens  for  the  soul  to  pass  through  and  reach 
the  lofty  regions  of  Supreme  Devotion  or  Fard-Bhakti. 
Then  it  is  that  we  begin  to  understand  what  Para- 
Bhakti  {?>',  and  the  man  who  has  entered  into  the  inner 
shrine  of  the  Pard-Bhakti,  he  alone  has  the  right  to  say 
that  all  forms  and  symbols  are  useless  to  him  as  aids 
to  religious  realisation.  He  alone  has  attained  that 
supreme  state  of  love  commonly  called  the  brother- 
hood of  man;  the  rest  only  talk.  He  sees  no  distinc- 
tions; the  mighty  ocean  of  love  has  entered  into  him, 
and  he  sees  not  man  in  man,  but  beholds  his  Beloved 
everywhere.  Through  every  face  shines  to  him  his 
Hari.  The  light  in  the  sun  or  the  moon  is  all  His 
manifestation.  Wherever  there  is  beauty  or  sublimity, 
to  him  it  is  all  His.  Such  Bhaktas  are  still  living;  the 
world  is  never  without  them.  Such,  though  bitten  by 
a  serpent,  only  say  that  a  messenger  came  for  them 
from  their  Beloved.  Such  men  alone  have  the  right 
to  talk  of  universal  brotherhood.  They  feel  no  resent- 
ment; their  minds  never  react  in  the  form  of  hatred, 
or  of  jealousy.  The  external,  the  sensuous,  has  van- 
ished from  them  forever.  How  can  they  be  angry, 
when,  through  their  love,  they  are  always  able  to  see 
the  Reality  behind  the  scenes? 


3IO  PARA-BHAKTI. 

The  Naturalness  of  Bhakti- Yoga  and  Its  Central  Secret. 

"  Those  who  with  constant  attention  always  worship 
You,  and  those  who  worship  the  Undifferentiated,  the 
Absolute, —  of  these  who  are  the  greater  Yogifis?'' — 
Arjuna  asked  of  Sri    Krishna.       The   answer  was:  — 
"  Those  who  concentrating  their  minds  on  Me  worship 
Me  with  eternal  constancy,  and  are  endowed  with  the 
highest  faith  —  they  are  My  best  worshippers,  they  are 
the  greatest  Yogins.     Those  that  worship  the  Absolute, 
the  Indescribable,  the  Undifferentiated,  the  Omnipres- 
ent,   the   Unthinkable,    the     All-comprehending,    the 
Immovable,  and  the  Eternal,  by  controlling  the  play 
of  their  organs  and  having  the  conviction  of  sameness 
in  regard  to  all  things,  they  also,   being  engaged  in 
doing  good  to  all  beings,  come  to  Me  alone.     But  to 
those  whose  minds  have  been  devoted  to  the  unmani- 
fested  Absolute,  the  difficulty  of  the  struggle  along  the 
way  is  much  greater,  for  it  is  indeed  with  great  diffi- 
culty that  the  path  of  the  unmanifested  Absolute  is 
trodden  by  any  embodied  being.      Those  who,  having 
offered  up  all  their  work  unto  Me,  with  entire  reliance 
in  Me,  meditate  on  Me  and  worship  Me  without  any 
attachment  to  anything  else  —  them  I  soon  lift  up  from 
the  ocean  of  death  and  ever-recurring  birth,  as  their 
mind  is  wholly  attached  to   Me."      Jndtia-Yoga  and 
Bhakti-  Yoga  are  both  referred  to  here.     Both  may  be 
said  to  have  been  defined  in  the  above  passage.     Jnd^ia- 
Yoga  is  grand;  it  is  high  philosophy;  and  almost  every 
human  being  thinks,   curiously  enough,    that  he  can 


PARA-BHAKTI.  3II 

surely  do  everything  required  of  him  by  philosophy; 
but  it  is  really  very  difficult  to  live  truly  the  life  of 
philosophy.  We  are  often  apt  to  run  into  great  dan- 
gers in  trying  to  guide  our  life  by  philosophy.  This 
world  may  be  said  to  be  divided  between  persons  of 
demoniacal  nature,  who  think  the  care-taking  of  the 
body  to  be  the  be-all  and  the  end-all  of  existence,  and 
persons  of  godly  nature  who  realise  that  the  body  is 
simply  a  means  to  an  end,  an  instrument  intended  for 
the  culture  of  the  soul.  The  devil  can  and  indeed 
does  quote  the  scriptures  for  its  own  purposes;  and 
thus  the  way  of  knowledge  appears  to  offer  justification 
to  what  the  bad  man  does  as  much  as  it  offers  induce- 
ments to  what  the  good  man  does.  This  is  the  great 
danger  in  J^ndna-Yoga.  But  Bhakti-Yoga  is  natural, 
sweet,  and  gentle;  the  Bhakta  does  not  take  such  high 
flights  as  the  j^ndfia-  Yoghi^  and  therefore  he  is  not  apt 
to  have  such  big  falls.  Until  the  bondages  of  the  soul 
pass  away,  it  cannot  of  course  be  free,  whatever  may 
be  the  nature  of  the  path  that  the  religious  man  takes. 
Here  is  a  passage  showing  how,  in  the  case  of  one  of 
the  blessed  Gopis^  the  soul-binding  chains  of  both  merit 
and  demerit  wxre  broken.  "  The  intense  pleasure  in 
meditating  on  God  took  away  the  binding  effects  of 
her  good  deeds.  Then  her  intense  misery  of  soul  in 
not  attaining  unto  Him  washed  off  all  her  sinful  pro- 
pensities, and  she  became  free."  Tn  Bhakti-Yoga  the 
central  secret  is,  therefore,  to  know  that  the  various 
passions  and  feelings  and  emotions  in  the  human  heart 
are  not  wrong  in  themselves;   only  they  have  to  be 


312  parA-bhakti. 

carefully  controlled  and  given  a  higher  and  higher 
direction,  until  they  attain  the  very  highest  condition 
of  excellence.  The  highest  direction  is  that  which 
takes  us  to  God;  every  other  direction  is  lower.  We 
find  that  pleasure  and  pain  are  very  common  and  oft- 
recurring  feelings  in  our  lives.  When  a  man  feels 
pain,  because  he  has  not  got  wealth  or  some  such 
worldly  thing,  he  is  giving  a  wrong  direction  to  the 
feeling.  Still  pain  has  its  uses.  Let  a  man  feel  pain 
that  he  has  not  reached  the  Highest,  that  he  has  not 
reached  God,  and  that  pain  will  be  to  his  salvation. 
When  you  become  glad  that  you  have  got  a  handful  of 
coins,  it  is  a  wrong  direction  given  to  the  faculty  of 
joy;  it  should  be  given  a  higher  direction,  it  must  be 
made  to  serve  the  Highest  Ideal.  Pleasure  in  that 
kind  of  ideal  must  surely  be  our  highest  joy.  This 
same  thing  is  true  of  all  our  other  feelings.  The 
Bhakta  says  that  not  one  of  them  is  wrong,  he  gets 
hold  of  them  all  and  points  them  unfailingly  towards 
God. 

The  Forms  of  Love-manifestation. 

Here  are  some  of  the  forms  in  which  love  manifests 
itself.  First  there  is  reverence.  Why  do  people  show 
reverence  to  temples  and  holy  places  ?  Because  He  is 
worshipped  there,  and  His  presence  is  associated  with 
all  such  places.  Why  do  people  in  every  country  pay 
reverence  to  teachers  of  religion?  It  is  natural  for 
the  human  heart  to  do  so,  because  all  such  teachers 
preach  the  Lord.     At  bottom,  reverence  is  a  growth 


PARA-BHAKTI.  313 

out  of  love;  we  can  none  of  us  revere  him  whom  we 
do  not  love.  Then  comes  Friti — pleasure  in  God. 
What  an  immense  pleasure  men  take  in  the  objects  of 
their  senses!  They  go  anywhere,  run  through  any 
danger,  to  get  the  thing  which  they  love,  the  thing 
which  their  senses  like.  What  is  wanted  of  the  Bhakta 
is  this  very  kind  of  intense  love  which  has,  however, 
to  be  directed  to  God.  Then  there  is  the  sweetest  of 
pains,  Viraha^  the  intense  misery  due  to  the  absence  of 
the  beloved.  When  a  man  feels  intense  misery,  because 
he  has  not  attained  to  God,  has  not  known  that  which 
is  the  only  thing  worthy  to  be  known,  and  becomes  in 
consequence  very  dissatisfied  and  almost  mad  —  then 
there  is  Viraha ;  and  this  state  of  the  mind  makes  it 
feel  disturbed  in  the  presence  of  anything  other  than 
the  beloved.  In  earthly  love  we  see  how  often  this 
Viraha  comes.  Again,  when  men  are  really  and 
mtensely  in  love  with  women,  or  women  with  men, 
they  feel  a  kind  of  natural  annoyance  in  the  presence 
of  all  those  whom  they  do  not  love.  Exactly  the  same 
state  of  impatience,  in  regard  to  things  that  are  not 
loved,  comes  to  the  mind,  when  Para-  Bhakti  holds 
sway  over  it;  even  to  talk  about  things  other  than  God 
becomes  distasteful  then.  "  Think  of  Him,  think  of 
Him  alone,  and  give  up  all  other  vain  words."  Those 
who  talk  of  Him  alone,  the  Bhakta  finds  to  be  friendly 
to  him;  while  those  who  talk  of  anything  else  appear 
to  him  to  be  unfriendly.  A  still  higher  stage  of  love  is 
reached  when  life  itself  is  maintained  for  the  sake  of 
the  one  Ideal  of  Love,  when  life  itself  is  considered 


314  PARA-BHAKTI. 

beautiful  and  worth  living  only  on  account  of  that 
Love.  Without  it,  such  a  life  would  not  remain  even 
for  a  moment.  Life  is  sweet  because  it  thinks  of  the 
Beloved.  Tadiyatd  {Hisiiess)  comes  when  a  man 
becomes  perfect  according  to  Bhakti ;  when  he  has 
become  blessed,  when  he  has  attained  to  God,  when  he 
has  touched  the  feet  of  God,  as  it  were,  his  whole 
nature  is  purified  and  completely  changed.  All  his 
purposes  in  life  then  become  fulfilled.  Yet,  many  such 
Bhaktas  live  on  just  to  worship  Him,  That  is  the 
bliss,  the  only  pleasure  in  life,  which  they  will  not  give 
up.  "  Oh  king,  such  is  the  blessed  quality  of  Hari 
that  even  those,  who  have  become  satisfied  with  every- 
thing, all  the  knots  of  whose  hearts  have  been  cut 
asunder,  even  they  love  the  Lord  for  love's  sake" — 
the  Lord  "  whom  all  the  gods  worship,  all  the  lovers  of 
liberation,  and  all  the  knowers  of  the  Brahman.'' 
Such  is  the  power  of  love.  When  a  man  has  forgotten 
himself  altogether,  and  does  not  feel  that  anything 
belongs  to  him,  then  he  acquires  the  state  of  Tadiyatd; 
everything  is  sacred  to  him,  because  it  belongs  to  the 
Beloved.  Even  in  regard  to  earthly  love  the  lover 
thinks  that  everything  belonging  to  his  beloved  is  so 
sacred  and  so  dear  to  him.  He  loves  even  a  bit  of  the 
cloth  belonging  to  the  darling  of  his  heart.  In  the 
same  way,  when  a  person  loves  the  Lord,  the  whole 
universe  becomes  so  dear  to  him,  because  it  is  all  His. 


PARA-BHAKTI.  315 

Universal  Love  and  How  It  Leads  to  Self-surrender. 

How  can  we  love  the  vyashti^  the  particular,  without 
first  loving  the  samas/tfi\  the  universal?  God  is  the 
samashti^  the  generalised  and  the  abstract  universal 
whole;  and  the  universe  that  we  see  is  the  vyashti^  the 
particularised  thing.  To  love  the  whole  universe  is 
possible  only  by  way  of  loving  the  samashti —  the  uni- 
versal—  which  is,  as  it  were,  the  one  unity  in  which 
are  to  be  found  millions  and  millions  of  smaller  unities. 
The  philosophers  of  India  do  not  stop  at  the  particu- 
lars; they  cast  a  hurried  glance  at  the  particulars,  and 
immediately  start  to  find  the  generalised  forms  which 
will  include  all  the  particulars.  The  search  after  the 
universal  is  the  one  search  of  Indian  philosophy  and 
religion.  The  yndm'?i  aims  at  the  wholeness  of  things, 
at  that  one  absolute  and  generalised  Being,  knowing 
which,  he  knows  everything.  The  Bhakta  wishes  to 
realise  that  one  generalised  abstract  Person,  in  loving 
Whom,  he  loves  the  whole  universe.  The  Yogin  wishes 
to  have  possession  of  that  one  generalised  form  of 
power,  by  controlling  which  he  controls  his  whole  uni- 
verse. The  Indian  mind,  throughout  its  history,  has 
been  directed  to  this  kind  of  singular  search  after  the 
universal  in  everything  —  in  science,  in  psychology,  in 
love,  in  philosophy.  So  the  conclusion  to  which  the 
Bhakta  comes  is  that,  if  you  go  on  merely  loving  one 
person  after  another,  you  may  go  on  loving  them  so 
for  an  infinite  length  of  time  without  being  in  the  least 
able  to  love  the  world  as  a  whole.     When,  at  last,  the 


3l6  PARA-BHAKTI. 

central  idea  is,  however,  arrived  at,  that  the  sum-total  of 
all  love  is  God,  that  the  sum-total  of  the  aspirations 
of  all  the  souls  in  the  universe,  whether  they  be  free, 
or  bound,   or  struggling  towards  liberation,   is   God, 
then  alone  it  becomes  possible  for  any  one  to  put  forth 
universal  love.     God  is  the  samashti^  and  this  visible 
universe  is  God  differentiated  and  made  manifest.     If 
we  love  this  sum-total,  we  love  everything.     Loving 
the  world  and  doing  it  good  will  all  come  easily  then; 
we  have  to  obtain  this  power  only  by  loving  God  first; 
otherwise    it    is    no   joke    to    do   good    to  the    world. 
"  Everything  is  His  and  He  is  my  Lover;  I  love  Him," 
says  the  Bhakta.      In   this  way    everything   becomes 
sacred  to  the  Bhakta^  because  all  things  are  His.     All 
are  His  children.  His  body,  His  manifestation.     How 
then  may  we  hurt  any  one  ?     How  then  may  we  not 
love  any  one  ?     With  the  love  of  God  will  come,  as 
a    sure    effect,    the   love     of    every  one    in    the     uni- 
verse.    The  nearer   we  approach    to    God,    the    more 
do  we  begin  to  see  that  all  things  are  in  Him.     When 
the  soul   succeeds  in  appropriating  the  bliss   of  this 
supreme  love,  it  also  begins  to  see  Him  in  everything. 
Our  heart  will  thus  become  an  eternal  fountain  of  love. 
And  when  we  reach  even  higher  states  of  this  love,  all 
the  little  differences  between  the  things  of  the  world 
are  entirely  lost;  man  is  seen  no  more  as  man,  but  only 
as  God;  the  animal  is  seen  no  more  as  animal,  but  as 
God;  even  the  tiger  is  no  more  a  tiger,  but  a  manifesta- 
tion of  God.     Thus,   in  this  intense  state  of  Bhakti^ 
worship  is  offered  to  everyone,  to  every  life,  and  to 


PARA-BHAKTI.  317 

every  being.  "  Knowing  that  Hari,  the  Lord,  is  in 
every  being,  the  vv'ise  have  thus  to  manifest  unswerving 
love  towards  all  beings."  As  a  result  of  this  kind  of 
intense  all-absorbing  love,  comes  the  feeling  of  perfect 
self-surrender,  the  conviction  that  nothing  that  hap- 
pens is  against  us.  Then  the  loving  soul  is  able  to  say, 
if  pain  comes,  "Welcome  pain."  If  misery  comes, 
it  will  say  "Welcome  misery,  you  are  also  from  the 
Beloved."  If  a  serpent  comes,  it  will  say  **  Welcome 
serpent."  If  death  comes,  such  a  Bhakta  will  welcome 
it  with  a  smile.  "  Blessed  am  I  that  they  all  come  to 
me;  they  are  all  welcome."  The  Bhakta  in  this  state 
of  perfect  resignation,  arising  out  of  intense  love  to 
God  and  to  all  that  are  His,  ceases  to  distinguish 
between  pleasure  and  pain  in  so  far  as  they  affect  him. 
He  does  not  know  what  it  is  to  complain  of  pain  or 
misery;  and  this  kind  of  uncomplaining  resignation  to 
the  will  of  God,  who  is  all  love,  is  indeed  a  worthier 
acquisition  than  all  the  glory  of  grand  and  heroic  per- 
formances. 

To  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  the  body  is  every- 
thing; the  body  is  all  the  universe  to  them;  bodily 
enjoyment  is  their  all  in  all.  This  demon  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  body  and  of  the  things  of  the  body  has 
entered  into  us  all.  We  may  indulge  in  tall  talk,  and 
take  very  high  flights,  but  we  are  like  vultures  all  the 
same;  our  mind  is  directed  to  the  piece  of  carrion 
down  below.  Why  should  our  body  be  saved,  say, 
from  the  tiger?  Why  may  we  not  give  it  over  to  the 
tiger?     The  tiger  will  thereby  be  pleased,  and  that  is 


3i8  parA-bhakti. 

not  altogether  so  very  far  from  self-sacrifice  and  wor- 
ship. Can  you  reach  the  realisation  of  such  an  idea  in 
which  all  sense  of  self  is  completely  lost?  It  is  a  very 
dizzy  height  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  religion  of  love, 
and  few  in  this  world  have  ever  climbed  up  to  it;  but 
until  a  man  reaches  that  highest  point  of  ever-ready 
and  ever-willing  self-sacrifice  he  cannot  become  a  per- 
fect Bhakta.  We  may  all  manage  to  maintain  our 
bodies  more  or  less  satisfactorily  and  for  longer  or 
shorter  intervals  of  time.  Nevertheless,  our  bodies 
have  to  go;  there  is  no  permanence  about  them. 
Blessed  are  they  whose  bodies  get  destroyed  m  the 
service  of  others.  **  Wealth,  and  even  life  itself,  the 
sage  always  holds  ready  for  the  service  of  others.  In 
this  world,  there  being  one  thing  certain,  viz.^  death, 
it  is  far  better  that  this  body  dies  in  a  good  cause  than 
in  a  bad  one."  We  may  drag  our  life  on  for  fifty  years 
or  a  hundred  years;  but  after  that,  vvhat  is  it  that 
happens  ?  Everything  that  is  the  result  of  combina- 
tion must  get  dissolved  and  die.  There  must  and  will 
come  a  time  for  it  to  be  decomposed.  Jesus  and  Bud- 
dha and  Mohammed  are  all  dead;  all  the  great  prophets 
and  teachers  of  the  world  are  dead.  "  In  this  evanes- 
cent world,  where  everything  is  falling  to  pieces,  we 
have  to  make  the  highest  use  of  what  time  we  have," 
says  the  Bhakta  j  and  really  the  highest  use  of  life  is  to 
hold  it  at  the  service  of  all  beings.  It  is  the  horrible 
body-idea  that  breeds  all  the  selfishness  in  the  world, 
just  this  one  delusion  that  we  are  wholly  the  body  we 
own,  and  that  we  must  by  all  possible  means  try  our 


parA-bhakti.  319 

very  best  to  preserve  and  to  please  it.  If  you  know 
that  you  are  positively  other  than  your  body,  you  have 
then  none  to  fight  with  or  struggle  against;  you  are 
dead  to  all  ideas  of  selfishness.  So  the  Bhakta  declares 
that  we  have  to  hold  ourselves  as  if  we  are  altogether 
dead  to  all  things  of  the  world;  and  that  is  indeed  self- 
surrender.  Let  things  come  as  they  may.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  "Thy  will  be  done;"  not  going  about 
fighting  and  struggling,  and  thinking  all  the  while  that 
God  wills  all  our  own  weaknesses  and  worldly  ambitions. 
It  may  be  that  good  comes  even  out  of  our  selfish  strug- 
gles; that  is,  however,  God's  look  out.  The  perfected 
Bhakta  s  idea  must  be  never  to  will  and  work  for  him- 
self. **  Lord,  they  build  high  temples  in  Your  name; 
they  make  large  gifts  in  Your  name;  I  am  poor;  I  am 
nothing;  so  I  take  this  body  of  mine  and  place  it  at 
Your  feet.  Do  not  give  me  up,  O  Lord."  Such  is  the 
prayer  proceeding  out  of  the  depths  of  the  Bhakta' s 
heart.  To  him  who  has  experienced  it,  this  eternal 
sacrifice  of  the  self  unto  the  Beloved  Lord  is  higher 
by  far  than  all  wealth  and  power,  than  even  all  soaring 
thoughts  of  renown  and  enjoyment.  The  peace  of  the 
Bhakta' s  calm  resignation  is  a  peace  that  passeth  all 
understanding,  and  is  of  incomparable  value.  His 
Aprdtikillya  is  a  state  of  the  mind  in  which  it  has  no 
interests,  and  naturally  knows  nothing  that  is  opposed 
to  them.  In  this  state  of  sublime  resignation  every- 
thing in  the  shape  of  attachment  goes  away  completely, 
except  that  one  all-absorbing  love  to  Him  in  Whom  all 
things   live  and   move  and    have   their   being.      This 


320 


PARA-BHAKTI. 


attachment  of  love  to  God  is,  indeed,  one  that  does  not 
bind  the  soul  but  effectively  breaks  all  its  bondages. 


The  Higher  Knowledge  and  the  Higher  Love  are  One  to 
the  True  Lover. 

The  Upanishads  distinguish  between  a  higher  knowl- 
edge and  a  lower  knowledge;  and  to  the  Bhakta  there  is 
really  no  difference  between  this  higher  knowledge  and 
this  higher  love  [Fara-bhakti).   The  Mundaka  Upanishad 
says: — "The  knowers  of  the  Bi-ahmati   declare  that 
there  are  two  kinds  of  knowledge  worthy  to  be  known, 
namely,  the  Higher  {Para)  and  the  Lower  (Apard). 
Of  these  the  Lower  (knowledge)  consists  of  the  Rigveda^ 
the    Yajurveda^    the    Sdmaveda,    the    Atharvaveda^    the 
Sikshd  (or  the  science  dealing  with  pronunciation  and 
accent),  the  Kalpa  (or  the  sacrificial  liturgy).   Gram- 
mar, the  Nirtikta  (or  the  science  dealing  with  etymology 
and  the  meaning  of  words).  Prosody,  and  Astronomy; 
and   the   Higher   (knowledge)   is  that  by  which    that 
Unchangeable  is  known,"     The  higher  knowledge  is 
thus  clearly  shown   to  be   the  knowledge  of  the  Brah- 
man; and  the  Devi-Bhdgavata  gives   us  the  following 
definition  of  the  higher  love  {Farj-bhakii)\ — "  As  oil 
poured  from  one  vessel  to  another  falls  in  an  unbroken 
line,  so,  when  the  mind  in  an  unbroken  stream  thinks 
of  the  Lord,   we  have  what  is   called   Pard-hhakti  or 
supreme  love."     This  kind  of  undisturbed   and  ever 
steady  direction  of  the  mind  and  the  heart  to  the  Lord 
with  an  inseparable  attachment  is  indeed  the  highest 


PARA-BHAKTI.  S^I 

manifestation  of  man's  love  to  God.     All  other  forms 
of  Bhakti  are  only  preparatory  for  the  attainment  of 
this  highest  form  thereof,  viz.,  the  Pard-bhakti  which 
is  also  known  as  the  love  that  comes  after  attachment 
{Rdgdmigd).     When  this  supreme  love  once  comes  into 
the  heart  of  man,  his  mind  will  continuously  think  of 
God    and   remember  nothing  else.-     He  will   give  no 
room  in  himself  to  thoughts  other  than  those  of  God, 
and  his  soul  will  be  unconquerably  pure,  and  will  alone 
break  all  the  bonds  of  mind  and  matter  and  become 
serenely  free.     He  alone  can  worship  the  Lord  in  his 
own  heart;  to  him  forms,  symbols,  books  and  doctrines 
are  all  unnecessary  and  are  incapable  of  proving  ser- 
viceable in  any  way.     It  is  not  easy  to  love  the  Lord 
thus.     Ordinarily  human  love  is  seen  to  flourish  only 
in  places  where  it  is  returned ;  where  love  is  not  returned 
for  love,  cold  indifference  is  the  natural  result.    There 
are,  however,  rare  instances  in  which  we  may  notice 
love  exhibiting  itself  even  where  there  is  no  return  of 
love.     We  may  compare  this  kind  of  love,  for  purposes 
of  illustration,  to  the  love  of  the  moth  for  the  fire;  the 
insect  loves  the  fire,  falls  into  it  and  dies.    It  is  indeed 
in  the  nature  of  this  insect  to  love  so.    To  love,  because 
it  is  the  nature  of  love  to  love,  is  undeniably  the  highest 
and  most  unselfish  manifestation  of  love  that  may  be 
•   seen  in  the  world.     Such  love  working  itself  out  on  the 
plane  of  spirituality  necessarily  leads  to  the  attainment 
of  PcA  d-bhakti. 


322  PARA-BHAKTI. 

The  Triangle  of  Love. 

We  may  represent  love  as  a  triangle,  each  of  the 
angles  of  which  corresponds  to  one  of  its  inseparable 
characteristics.  There  can  be  no  triangle  without  all 
its  three  angles;  and  there  can  be  no  true  love  with- 
out its  three  following  characteristics.  The  first  angle 
of  our  triangle  of  love  is  that  love  knows  no  bargaining. 
Wherever  there  is  any  seeking  for  something  in  return, 
there  can  be  no  real  love;  it  becomes  a  mere  matter  of 
shop-keeping.  As  long  as  there  is  in  us  any  idea  of 
deriving  this  or  that  favour  from  God  in  return  for  our 
respect  and  allegiance  to  Him,  so  long  there  can  be 
no  true  love  growing  in  our  hearts.  Those  who  wor- 
ship God  because  they  wish  Him  to  bestow  favours  on 
them  are  sure  not  to  worship  Him  if  those  favours  are 
not  forthcoming.  The  Bhakta  loves  the  Lord  because 
He  is  lovable;  there  is  no  other  motive  originating  or 
directing  this  divine  emotion  of  the  true  devotee.  We 
have  heard  it  said  that  a  great  king  once  went  into  a 
forest  and  there  met  a  sage.  He  talked  with  the  sage 
a  little  and  was  very  much  pleased  with  his  purity  and 
wisdom.  The  king  then  wanted  the  sage  to  oblige 
him  by  receiving  a  present  from  him.  The  sage  refused 
to  do  so,  saying,  **  The  fruits  of  the  forest  are  food 
enough  for  me;  the  pure  streams  of  water  flowing 
down  from  the  mountains  give  enough  of  drink  for  me; 
the  barks  of  the  trees  supply  me  with  enough  ot  cover- 
ing; and  the  caves  of  the  mountains  form  my  home. 
Why  should  I  take  any  present  from  you  or  from  any- 


PARA-BHAKTI.  323 

body  ?"  The  king  said,  "  Just  to  benefit  me,  sir,  please 
take  something  from  my  hands,  and  please  go  with  me 
to  the  city  and  to  my  palace."  After  much  persuasion, 
the  sage  at  last  consented  to  do  as  the  king  desired, 
and  went  with  him  to  his  palace.  Before  offering  the 
gift  to  the  sage  the  king  repeated  his  prayers,  saying, 
"  Lord,  give  me  more  children;  Lord,  give  me  more 
wealth;  Lord,  give  me  more  territory;  Lord,  keep  my 
body  in  better  health;"  and  so  on.  Before  the  king 
finished  saying  his  prayer  the  sage  had  got  up  and 
walked  away  from  the  room  quietly.  At  seeing  tms 
the  king  became  perplexed  and  began  to  follow  tiiiij, 
crying  aloud,  "  Sir,  you  are  going  away,  you  have  '101 
taken  my  presents."  The  sage  turned  round  anc 
said,  "  Beggar,  I  do  not  beg  of  beggars.  You  are  a 
beggar  yourself,  and  how  can  you  give  me  anything? 
I  am  no  fool  to  think  of  taking  anything  from  a  beggar 
like  you.  Go  away,  do  not  follow  me."  There  is  well 
brought  out  the  distinction  between  mere  beggars  and 
the  real  lovers  of  God.  To  worship  God  even  for  the 
sake  of  salvation  or  any  other  reward  is  equally  degene- 
rate. Love  knows  no  reward.  Love  is  always  for 
love's  sake.  The  Bhakta  loves  because  he  cannot  help 
loving.  When  you  see  beautiful  scenery  and  fall  in 
love  with  it,  you  do  not  demand  anything  in  the  way 
of  favour  from  the  scenery;  nor  does  the  scenery 
demand  anythmg  from  you.  Yet  the  vision  thereof 
brings  you  to  a  blissful  state  of  the  mind,  it  tones 
down  all  the  friction  in  your  soul,  it  makes  you  calm, 
almost   raises  you,   for  the  time  being,   beyond  your 


324  PARA-BHAKTI. 

mortal  nature,  and  places  you  in  a  condition  of  quite 
divine  ecstasy;  this  nature  of  real  love  is  the  first  angle 
of  our  triangle.  Ask  not  anything  in  return  for  your 
love;  let  your  position  be  always  that  of  the  giver; 
give  your  love  unto  God,  but  do  not  ask  anything  in 
return  even  from  Him. 

The  second  angle  of  the  triangle  of  love  is  that  love 
knows  no  fear.  Those  that  love  God  through  fear  are 
the  lowest  of  human  beings,  quite  undeveloped  as  men. 
They  worship  God  from  fear  of  punishment.  He  is  a 
great  Being  to  them,  with  a  whip  in  one  hand  and  the 
sceptre  in  the  other;  if  they  do  not  obey  Him  they  are 
afraid  they  will  be  whipped.  It  is  a  degradation  to 
worship  God  through  fear  of  punishment;  such  worship 
is,  if  worship  at  all,  the  crudest  form  of  the  worship  of 
love.  So  long  as  there  is  any  fear  in  the  heart,  how 
can  there  be  love  also  ?  Love  conquers  naturally  all 
fear.  Think  of  a  young  mother  in  the  street,  and  if  a 
dog  barks  at  her  she  is  frightened;  she  flies  into  the 
nearest  house.  Suppose  the  same  mother  is  in  the 
street  with  her  child;  and  a  lion  springs  upon  the  child. 
Where  then  will  the  mother's  place  be?  Of  course  at 
the  mouth  of  the  lion.  Love  does  conquer  all  fear. 
Fear  comes  from  the  selfish  idea  of  cutting  one's  self 
off  from  the  universe.  The  smaller  and  the  more  self- 
ish I  make  myself,  the  more  is  my  fear.  If  a  man 
thinks  he  is  a  little  nothing,  fear  will  surely  come  upon 
him.  And  the  less  you  think  of  yourself  as  an  insignifi- 
cant person,  the  less  fear  will  there  be  for  you.  So  long 
as  there  is  the  least  spark  of  fear  in  you  there  can  be 


PARA-BHAKTI.  325 

no  love  there.  Love  and  fear  are  incompatible;  God 
is  never  to  be  feared  by  those  who  love  Him.  The 
commandment,  "  Do  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  in  vain,"  the  true  lover  of  God  laughs  at. 
How  can  there  be  any  blasphemy  in  the  religion  of  love? 
The  more  you  take  the  name  of  the  Lord,  the  better 
for  you,  in  whatever  way  you  may  do  it.  You  are  only 
repeating  His  name  because  you  love  Him. 

The  third  angle  of  the  love-triangle  is  that  love  knows 
no  rival,  for  in  it  is  always  embodied  the  lover's 
highest  ideal.  True  love  never  comes  until  the  object 
of  our  love  becomes  to  us  our  highest  ideal.  It  may 
be  that  in  many  cases  human  love  is  misdirected  and 
misplaced,  but  to  the  person  who  loves,  the  thing  he 
loves  is  always  his  own  highest  ideal.  One  may  see  his 
ideal  in  the  vilest  of  beings,  and  another  in  the  highest 
of  beings;  nevertheless,  in  every  case  it  is  the  ideal 
alone  that  can  be  truly  and  intensely  loved.  The 
highest  ideal  of  every  man  is  called  God.  Ignorant  or 
wise,  saint  or  sinner,  man  or  woman,  educated  or 
uneducated,  cultivated  or  uncultivated,  to  every  human 
being  the  highest  ideal  is  God.  The  synthesis  of  all 
the  highest  ideals  of  beauty,  of  sublimity^  and  of  power 
gives  us  the  completest  conception  of  the  loving  and 
lovable  God.  These  ideals  exist,  in  some  shape  or 
other,  in  every  mind  naturally;  they  form  a  part  and 
parcel  of  all  our  minds.  All  the  active  manifestations 
of  human  nature  are  struggles  of  those  ideals  to  become 
realised  in  practical  life.  All  the  various  movements 
that  we  see  around  us  in  society  are  caused  by  the 


326  PARA-BHAKTI. 

various  ideals  in  various  souls  trying  to  come  out  and 
become  concretised;  what  is  inside  presses  on  to  come 
outside.  This  perennially  dominant  influence  of  the 
ideal  is  the  one  force,  the  one  motive  power,  that  may 
be  seen  to  be  constantly  working  in  the  midst  of  man- 
kind. It  may  be  after  hundreds  of  births,  after  strug- 
gling through  thousands  of  years,  that  man  finds  out 
that  it  is  vain  to  try  to  make  the  inner  ideal  mould 
completely  the  external  conditions  and  square  well 
with  them;  after  realising  this  he  no  more  tries  to  pro- 
ject his  own  ideal  on  the  outside  world,  but  worships 
the  ideal  itself  as  ideal,  from  the  highest  standpoint  of 
love.  This  ideally  perfect  ideal  embraces  all  lower 
ideals.  Every  one  admits  the  truth  of  the  saying  that  a 
lover  sees  Helen's  beauty  on  an  Ethiop's  brow.  The 
man  who  is  standing  aside  as  a  looker-on  sees  that  love 
is  here  misplaced,  but  the  lover  sees  his  Helen  all  the 
same,  and  does  not  see  the  Ethiop  at  all.  Helen  or 
Ethiop,  the  objects  of  our  love  are  really  the  centres 
round  which  our  ideals  become  crystallised.  What  is  it 
that  the  world  commonly  worships?  Not  certainly  this 
all-embracing  ideally  perfect  ideal  of  the  supreme 
devotee  and  lover.  That  ideal  which  men  and  women 
commonly  worship  is  what  is  in  themselves;  every  per- 
son projects  his  or  her  own  ideal  on  the  outside  world 
and  kneels  before  it.  That  is  why  we  find  that  men 
who  are  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  conceive  of  a  blood- 
thirsty God,  because  they  can  only  love  their  own 
highest  ideal.     That  is  why  good  men  have  a  very 


1>ARA-BHAKTI.  32^ 

high  ideal  of  God;  and  their  ideal  is  indeed  so  very- 
different  from  that  of  others. 

The  God  of  Love  is  His  own  Proof. 

What  is  the  ideal  of  the  lover  who  has  quite  passed 
beyond  the  idea  of  selfishness,  of  bartering  and  bar- 
gaining, and  who  knows  no  fear?  Even  to  the  great 
God  such  a  man  will  say — "  I  will  give  you  my  all, 
and  I  do  not  want  anything  from  you;  indeed  there  is 
nothing  that  I  can  call  my  own."  When  a  man  has 
acquired  this  conviction,  his  ideal  becomes  one  of  per- 
fect love,  one  of  the  perfect  fearlessness  of  love.  The 
highest  ideal  of  such  a  person  has  no  narrowness  of 
particularity  about  it;  it  is  love  universal,  love  without 
limits  and  bounds,  love  itself,  absolute  love.  This 
grand  ideal  of  the  religion  of  love  is  worshipped  and 
loved  absolutely  as  such  without  the  aid  of  any  symbols 
or  suggestions.  This  is  the  highest  form  of  Fard-bhakti^ 
the  worship  of  such  an  all-comprehending  ideal  as  the 
ideal;  all  the  other  forms  of  Bhakti  ^xt,  only  stages  on 
the  way  to  reach  it.  All  our  failures  and  all  our  suc- 
cesses in  following  the  religion  of  love  are  on  the  road 
to  the  realisation  of  that  one  ideal.  Object  after  object 
is  taken  up,  and  the  inner  ideal  is  successively  projected 
on  it  all;  and  all  such  external  objects  are  found 
inadequate  as  exponents  of  the  ever-expanding  inner 
ideal,  and  are  naturally  rejected  one  after  another. 
At  last  the  aspirant  begins  to  think  that  it  is  vain  to 
try  to  realise  the  ideal  in  external  objects,  that  all 
external  objects  are  as  nothing  when  compared  with 


328  PARA-BHAKTI. 

the  ideal  itself;  and,  in  course  of  time,  he  acquires  the 
power  of  realising  the  highest  and  the  most  generahsed 
abstract  ideal  entirely  as  an  abstraction  that  is  to  him 
quite  alive  and  real.  When  the  devotee  has  reached 
this  point,  he  is  no  more  impelled  to  ask  whether  God 
can  be  demonstrated  or  not,  whether  He  is  omnipotent 
and  omniscient,  or  not.  To  him  He  is  only  the  God 
of  Love;  He  is  the  highest  ideal  of  love  and  that  is 
sufficient  for  all  his  purposes;  He,  as  love,  is  self-evi- 
dent; it  requires  no  proofs  to  demonstrate  the  existence 
of  the  beloved  to  the  lover.  The  magistrate-gods  of 
other  forms  of  religion  may  require  a  good  deal  of 
proof  to  prove  them,  but  the  Bhakta  does  not  and  can- 
not think  of  such  gods  at  all.  To  him  God  exists 
entirely  as  Love.  "  None,  O  beloved,  loves  the  hus- 
band for  the  husband's  sake,  but  it  is  for  the  sake  of 
the  Self  who  is  in  the  husband  that  the  husband  is 
loved;  none,  O  beloved,  loves  the  wife  for  the  wife's 
sake,  but  it  is  for  the  sake  of  the  Self  who  is  in  the  wife 
that  the  wife  is  loved."  It  is  said  by  some  that  self- 
ishness is  the  only  motive  power  in  regard  to  all  human 
activities.  That  also  is  love  lowered  by  being  par- 
ticularised. When  I  think  of  myself  as  comprehending 
the  universal,  there  can  surely  be  no  selfishness  in  me; 
but  when  I,  by  mistake,  think  that  I  am  a  little  some- 
thing, my  love  becomes  particularised  and  narrowed. 
The  mistake  consists  in  making  the  sphere  of  love  nar- 
row and  contracted.  All  things  in  the  universe  are  of 
divine  origin  and  deserve  to  beloved;  it  has,  however, 
to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  love  of  the  whole  includes 


iPARA-BHAKTI.  329 

the  love  of  the  parts.  This  whole  is  the  God  of  the 
Bhaktas^  and  all  the  other  Gods,  Fathers  in  Heaven, 
or  Rulers,  or  Creators,  and  all  theories  and  doctrines 
and  books  have  no  purpose  and  no  meaning  for  them, 
seeing  that  they  have  through  their  supreme  love  and 
devotion  risen  above  those  things  altogether.  When 
the  heart  is  purified  and  cleansed  and  filled  to  the  brim 
with  the  divine  nectar  of  love,  all  other  ideas  of  God 
become  simply  puerile,  and  are  rejected  as  being  inade- 
quate or  unworthy.  Such  is  indeed  the  power  of  PanU 
Bhakti  or  Supreme  Love ;  and  the  perfected  Bhakta  no 
more  goes  to  see  God  in  temples  and  churches;  he 
knows  nowhere  to  go  where  he  will  not  find  Him.  He 
finds  Him  in  the  temple  as  well  as  out  of  the  temple; 
he  finds  Him  in  the  saint's  saintliness  as  well  as  in  the 
wicked  man's  wickedness,  because  he  has  Him  already 
seated  in  glory  in  his  own  heart,  as  the  one  almighty, 
inextinguishable  Light  of  Love  which  is  ever  shining 
and  eternally  present 

Human  Representations  of  the  Divine  Ideal  of  Love. 

It  is  impossible  to  express  the  nature  of  this  supreme 
and  absolute  ideal  of  love  in  human  language.  Even 
the  highest  flight  of  human  imagination  is  incapable  of 
comprehending  it  m  all  its  infinite  perfection  and 
beauty.  Nevertheless,  the  followers  of  the  religion  of 
love  in  its  higher  as  well  as  its  lower  forms  have  all 
along  and  in  all  countries  had  to  use  the  inadequate 
human  language   to  comprehend  and   to   define  their 


330  PARA-BHAKTI. 

own  ideal  of  love.  Nay  more;  human  love  itself,  in  all 
its  varied  forms,  has  been  made  to  typify  this  inex- 
pressible divine  love.  Man  can  think  of  divine  things 
only  in  his  own  human  way;  to  us  the  Absolute  can  be 
expressed  only  in  our  relative  language.  The  whole 
universe  is  to  us  a  writing  of  the  infinite  in  the  language 
of  the  finite.  Therefore  Bhaktas  make  use  of  all  the 
common  terms  associated  with  the  common  love  of 
humanity  in  relation  to  God  and  His  worship  of  love. 
Some  of  the  great  writers  on  Fard-bhakti  have  tried  to 
understand  and  experience  this  divine  love  in  so  many 
different  ways.  The  lowest  form  in  which  this  love  is 
apprehended  is  what  they  call  the  peaceful ;  the  ^dnta. 
When  a  man  worships  God  without  the  fire  of  love  in 
him,  without  its  madness  in  his  brain,  when  his  love  is 
just  the  calm  commonplace  love,  a  little  higher  than 
mere  forms  and  ceremonies  and  symbols,  but  not  at  all 
characterised  by  the  madness  of  intensely  active  love, 
it  is  said  to  be  Sdnta.  We  see  some  people  in  the  world 
who  like  to  move  on  slowly,  and  others  who  come  and 
go  like  the  whirlwind.  The  Sdnta-Bhkata  is  calm, 
peaceful,  gentle.  The  next  higher  type  is  that  of  Ddsya 
(servantship) ;  it  comes  when  a  man  thinks  he  is  the 
servant  of  the  Lord.  The  attachment  of  the  faithful 
servant  unto  the  master  is  his  ideal.  The  next  is  what 
is  known  as  Vdtsalya^  loving  God  not  as  our  Father  but 
as  our  Child.  This  may  look  peculiar,  but  it  is  a  dis- 
cipline to  enable  us  to  detach  all  ideas  of  power  from 
the  concept  of  God.  The  idea  of  power  brings  with 
it  awe.     There  should  be  no  awe  in  love.     The  ideas 


PARA-BHAKTI.  33 1 

of  reverence  and  obedience  are  necessary  for  the  forma- 
tion of  character,  but  when  character  is  formed,  when 
the  lover  has  tasted  the  calm,  peaceful  love,  and  tasted 
also  a  little  of  its  intense  madness,  then  he  need  talk 
no  more  of  ethics  and  discipline.  To  conceive  God  as 
mighty,  majestic  and  glorious,  as  the  Lord  of  the  Uni- 
verse, or  as  the  God  of  Gods,  the  lover  says  he  does 
not  care.  It  is  to  avoid  this  association  with  God  of 
the  fear-creating  sense  of  power  that  he  worships  God 
as  his  own  child.  The  mother  and  the  father  are  not 
moved  by  awe  in  relation  to  the  child;  they  cannot 
have  any  reverence  for  the  child.  They  cannot  think 
of  asking  any  favour  from  the  child.  The  child's 
position  is  always  that  of  the  receiver,  and  out  of  love 
for  the  child  the  parents  will  give  up  their  bodies  a 
hundred  times  over.  A  thousand  lives  they  will  sacri- 
fice for  that  one  child  of  theirs,  and  therefore  God  is 
loved  as  a  child.  This  idea  of  loving  God  as  a  child 
comes  into  existence  and  grows  naturally  among  those 
religious  sects  which  believe  in  the  incarnation  of  God. 
To  the  Mahomedans  it  is  impossible  to  have  this  idea 
of  God  as  a  child;  they  will  shrink  from  it  with  a  kind 
of  horror.  But  the  Christian  and  the  Hindu  can  realise 
it  easily,  because  they  have  the  baby  Jesus  and  the 
baby  Krishna.  The  women  in  India  often  look  upon 
themselves  as  Krishna's  mothers ;  Christian  mothers  also 
may  take  up  the  idea  that  they  are  all  Christ's  mothers, 
and  it  will  bring  to  the  West  the  knowledge  of  God's 
Divine  Motherhood  which  they  so  much  need.  The 
superstitions  of  awe  and  reverence  in  relation  to  God 


332  PARA-BHAKTI. 

are  deeply  rooted  in  the  heart  of  our  hearts,  and  it 
takes  long  years  entirely  to  sink  in  love  our  ideas  of 
reverence  and  veneration,  of  awe  and  majesty  and  glory 
with  regard  to  God. 

The  next  type  of  love  is  Sakhya  (friendship).  "  Thou 
art  our  beloved  friend."  Just  as  a  man  opens  his  heart 
to  his  friend,  and  knows  that  the  friend  will  never  chide 
him  for  his  faults,  but  will  always  try  to  help  him,  just 
as  there  is  the  idea  of  equality  between  him  and  his 
friend,  so  equal  love  flows  in  and  out  between  the  wor- 
shipper and  his  friendly  God.  Thus  God  becomes  our 
friend,  the  friend  who  is  near,  the  friend  to  whom  we 
may  freely  tell  all  the  tales  of  our  lives;  the  innermost 
secrets  of  our  hearts  we  may  place  before  him  with  the 
greatest  assurance  of  safety  and  support;  He  is  the 
friend  whom  the  devotee  accepts  as  an  equal;  God  is 
viewed  here  as  our  playmate.  We  may  well  say  that 
we  are  all  playing  in  this  universe.  Just  as  children 
play  their  games,  just  as  the  most  glorious  kings  and 
emperors  play  their  own  games,  so  is  the  Beloved  Lord 
Himself  in  sport  with  this  universe.  He  is  perfect; 
He  does  not  want  anything.  Why  should  He  create? 
Activity  is  always  with  us  for  the  fulfillment  of  a  certain 
want,  and  want  always  presupposes  imperfection.  God 
is  perfect;  He  has  no  wants.  Why  should  He  go  on 
with  this  work  of  an  ever  active  creation?  What  pur- 
pose has  He  in  view?  The  stories  about  God  creating 
this  world,  for  some  end  or  other  that  we  imagine,  are 
good  as  stories,  but  not  otherwise.  It  is  all  really  in 
sport;  the  universe  is  His  play  going  on.     The  whole 


PARA-BHAKTI.  333 

universe  must  after  all  be  a  big  piece  of  pleasing  fun 
to  Him.  If  you  are  poor  enjoy  that  as  a  fun;  if  you  are 
rich  enjoy  the  fun  of  being  rich;  if  dangers  come,  it 
is  also  good  fun;  if  happiness  comes  there  is  more  good 
fun.  The  world  is  just  a  play-ground,  and  we  are  here 
having  good  fun,  having  a  game,  and  God  is  with  us 
playing  all  the  while,  and  we  are  with  Him  playing. 
God  is  our  eternal  playmate.  How  beautifully  He  is 
playing!  The  play  is  finished,  the  cycle  comes  to  an 
end.  There  is  rest  for  a  shorter  or  longer  time,  again 
all  come  out  and  play.  It  is  only  when  you  forget 
that  it  is  all  play,  and  that  you  are  also  helping  in  the 
play,  it  is  only  then  that  misery  and  sorrows  come; 
then  the  heart  becomes  heavy,  then  the  world  weighs 
upon  you  with  tremendous  power;  but  as  soon  as  you 
give  up  the  serious  idea  of  reality  as  the  character- 
istic of  the  changing  incidents  of  the  three  minutes  of 
life,  and  know  it  to  be  but  a  stage  on  which  we  are 
playing,  helping  Him  to  play,  at  once  misery  ceases 
for  you.  He  plays  in  every  atom;  He  is  playing  when 
He  is  building  up  earths,  and  suns,  and  moons;  He  is 
playing  with  the  human  heart,  with  animals,  with 
plants.  We  are  his  chessmen;  He  puts  the  chessmen 
on  the  board,  and  shakes  them  up.  He  arranges  us 
first  in  one  way  and  then  in  another,  and  we  are  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  helping  in  His  play.  And 
Oh  bliss!  we  are  His  playmates! 

There  is  one  more  human  representation  of  the  divine 
ideal  of  love.  It  is  known  as  Madhura  (sweet),  and  is 
the  highest  of  all  such  representations.     It  is  indeed 


334  PARA-BHAKTI. 

based  on  the  highest  manifestation  of  love  in  this  world, 
and  this  love  is  also  the  strongest  known  to  man. 
What  love  shakes  the  whole  nature  of  man,  what  love 
runs  through  every  atom  of  his  being,  makes  him  mad, 
makes  him  forget  his  own  nature,  transforms  him, 
makes  him  either  a  God  or  a  demon  as  the  love  between 
man  and  woman?  In  this  sweet  representation  of 
divine  love  God  is  our  husband.  We  are  all  women; 
there  are  no  men  in  this  world;  there  is  but  the  One 
Man,  and  that  is  He,  our  Beloved.  All  that  love 
which  man  gives  to  woman,  or  woman  to  man,  has  here 
to  be  given  up  to  the  Lord.  All  the  different  kinds  of 
love  which  we  see  in  the  world,  and  with  which  we 
are  more  or  less  playing  merely,  have  God  as  the  one 
goal ;  only  unfortunately  man  does  not  know  the  infinite 
ocean  into  which  this  mighty  river  of  love  is  constantly 
flowing;  and  so,  foolishly,  he  often  tries  to  direct  it  to 
little  dolls  of  human  beings.  The  tremendous  love 
for  the  child  that  is  in  human  nature  is  not  for  the  little 
doll  of  a  child;  if  you  bestow  it  blindly  and  exclusively 
on  the  child,  you  will  suffer  in  consequence;  but 
through  such  suffering  will  come  the  awakening  by 
which  you  are  sure  to  find  out  that  the  love  which  is 
in  you,  if  it  is  given  to  any  human  being,  will  sooner 
or  later  bring  pain  and  sorrow  as  the  result.  Our 
love  must  therefore  be  given  to  the  Highest  One,  who 
never  dies  and  never  changes,  to  Him  in  the  ocean  of 
whose  love  there  is  neither  ebb  nor  flow.  Love  must 
get  to  its  right  destination,  it  must  go  unto  Him  who 
is  really  the  infinite  ocean  of  love.     All  rivers  flow  into 


PARA-BHAKTI.  335 

the  ocean.  Even  the  drop  of  water  coming  down  from 
the  mountain  side  cannot  stop  its  course  after  reaching 
a  brook  or  a  river,  however  big  it  may  be;  at  last  even 
that  drop  somehow  does  find  its  way  to  the  ocean, 
God  is  the  one  goal  of  all  our  passions  and  emotions. 
If  you  want  to  be  angry,  be  angry  with  Him.  Chide 
your  Beloved,  chide  your  Friend.  Whom  else  can 
you  safely  chide?  Mortal  man  will  not  patiently  put 
up  with  your  anger;  there  will  be  a  reaction.  If  you 
are  angry  with  me  I  am  sure  quickly  to  react,  because 
I  cannot  patiently  put  up  with  your  anger.  Say  unto 
the  Beloved,  "  Why  do  You  not  come  to  me;  why  do 
You  leave  me  thus  alone?  "  Where  is  there  any  enjoy- 
ment but  in  Him?  What  enjoyment  can  there  be  in 
little  clods  of  earth?  It  is  the  crystallised  essence  of 
infinite  enjoyment  that  we  have  to  seek,  and  that  is  in 
God.  Let  all  our  passions  and  emotions  go  up  unto  Him. 
They  are  meant  for  Him,  for  if  they  miss  their  mark 
and  go  lower,  they  become  vile;  and  when  they  go 
straight  to  the  mark,  the  Lord,  even  the  lowest  of 
them  becomes  transfigured;  all  the  energies  of  the 
human  body  and  mind,  howsoever  they  may  express 
themselves,  have  the  Lord  as  their  one  goal,  as  their 
Ekdyana.  All  loves  and  all  passions  of  the  human  heart 
must  go  to  God.  He  is  the  Beloved;  whom  else  can 
this  heart  love?  He  is  the  most  beautiful,  the  most 
sublime,  He  is  beauty  itself;  sublimity  itself.  Who  in 
this  universe  is  more  beautiful  than  He?  Who  in  this 
universe  is  more  fit  to  become  the  husband  than  He? 
Who  in  this  universe   is  fitter  to  be  loved  than  He? 


336  PARA-BIIAKTI. 

So  let  Him  be  the  husband,  let  Him  be  the  Beloved. 
Often  it  so  happens  that  divine  lovers  who  sing  of  this 
divine  love  accept  the  language  of  human  love  in  all 
its  aspects  as  adequate  to  describe  it.  Fools  do  not 
understand  this;  they  never  will.  They  look  at  it  only 
with  the  physical  eye.  They  do  not  understand  the 
mad  throes  of  this  spiritual  love.  How  can  they? 
"  One  kiss  of  Thy  lips,  O  Beloved!  He  that  has  been 
kissed  by  Thee,  his  thirst  for  Thee  goes  on  increasing 
for  ever,  all  his  sorrows  vanish,  and  he  forgets  all 
things  except  Thee."  Aspire  after  that  kiss  of  the 
Beloved,  that  touch  of  His  lips  which  makes  the  Bhakta 
mad,  which  makes  of  man  a  god.  To  him,  who  has 
been  blessed  with  such  a  kiss,  the  whole  of  nature 
changes,  worlds  vanish,  suns  and  moons  die  out  and 
the  universe  itself  melts  away  into  that  one  infinite 
ocean  of  love.  That  is  the  perfection  of  the  madness 
of  love.  Aye,  the  true  spiritual  lover  does  not  rest 
even  there;  even  the  love  of  husband  and  wife  is  not 
mad  enough  for  him.  The  Bhaktas  take  up  also  the 
idea  of  illegitimate  love,  because  it  is  so  strong;  the 
impropriety  of  it  is  not  at  all  the  thing  they  have  in 
view.  The  nature  of  this  love  is  such  that  the  more 
obstructions  there  are  for  its  free  play  the  more  pas- 
sionate it  becomes.  The  love  between  husband  and 
wife  is  smooth,  there  are  no  obstructions  there.  So  the 
Bhaktas  take  up  the  idea  of  a  girl  who  is  in  Irve  with  her 
own  beloved  man,  and  her  mother  or  father  or  hus- 
band, objects  to  such  love;  the  more  anybody  obstructs 
the  course  of  her  love  the  more  is  her  love  tending  to 


parA-bhakti.  337 

grow  in  strength.  Human  language  cannot  describe 
how  Krishna  was  in  the  groves  of  Brinda,  how  madly 
he  was  loved,  how  at  the  sound  of  his  voice  all  rushed 
out  to  meet  him,  the  ever  blessed  Gopis^  forgetting 
everything,  forgetting  this  world  and  its  ties,  its  duties, 
its  joy  and  its  sorrows.  Man,  oh  man,  you  speak  of 
divine  love  and  at  the  same  time  are  able  to  attend  to 
all  the  vanities  of  this  world  —  are  you  sincere?  '  'Where 
Rama  is,  there  is  no  room  for  any  desire  —  where 
desire  is  there  is  no  room  for  Rama:  these  never  co- 
exist —  like  light  and  darkness  they  are  never 
together.  *  * 

Conclusion. 

When  this  highest  ideal  of  love  is  reached  philosophy 
is  thrown  away;  who  will  then  care  for  it?  Freedom, 
Salvation,  Nirvdna  —  all  are  thrown  away;  who  cares 
to  become  free  while  in  the  enjoyment  of  divine  love? 
*'  Lord,  I  do  not  want  wealth,  nor  friends,  nor  beauty, 
nor  learning,  nor  even  freedom;  let  me  be  born  again 
and  again,  and  be  Thou  ever  my  Love."  Be  Thou  ever 
and  ever  my  Love.  "  Who  cares  to  become  sugar," 
says  the  Bhakta^  "  I  want  to  taste  sugar."  Who  will 
then  desire  to  become  free  and  one  with  God?  "  I  may 
know  that  I  am  He,  yet  will  I  take  myself  away  from 
Him  and  become  different,  so  that  I  may  enjoy  the 
Beloved."  That  is  what  the  Bhakta  says.  Love  for 
love's  sake  is  his  highest  enjoyment.  Who  will  not 
be  bound  hand  and  foot  a  thousand  times  over  to  enjoy 
the  Beloved?     No  Bhakta  cares  for  anything  except 

32 


338  PARA-BHAKTI. 

love,  except  to  love  and  be  loved.  His  unworldly  love 
is  like  the  tide  rushing  up  the  river;  this  lover  goes 
up  the  river,  against  the  current.  The  world  calls  him 
mad.  I  know  one  whom  the  world  used  to  call  mad, 
and  this  was  his  answer.  "  My  friends,  the  whole 
world  is  a  lunatic  asylum;  some  are  mad  after  worldly 
love,  some  after  name,  some  after  fame,  some  after 
money,  some  after  salvation  and  going  to  heaven.  In 
this  big  lunatic  asylum  I  am  also  mad,  I  am  mad  after 
God.  If  you  are  mad  after  money,  I  am  mad  after 
God.  You  are  mad;  so  am  I.  I  think  my  madness  is 
after  all  the  best."  The  true  Bkaktas  love  is  this 
burning  madness,  before  which  everything  else  vanishes 
for  him.  The  whole  universe  is  to  him  full  of  love 
and  love  alone;  that  is  how  it  seems  to  the  lover.  So 
when  a  man  has  this  love  in  him,  he  becomes  eternally 
blessed,  eternally  happy;  this  blessed  madness  of  divine 
love  alone  can  cure  for  ever  the  disease  of  the  world 
that  is  in  us. 

We  all  have  to  begin  as  dualists  in  the  religion  of 
love.  God  is  to  us  a  separate  being,  and  we  feel  our- 
selves to  be  separate  beings  also.  Love  then  comes  in 
the  middle,  and  man  begins  to  approach  God,  and  God 
also  comes  nearer  and  nearer  to  man.  Man  takes  up 
all  the  various  relationships  of  life,  as  father,  as  mother, 
as  son,  as  friend,  as  master,  as  lover;  and  projects 
them  on  his  ideal  of  love,  on  his  God.  To  him  God 
exists  as  all  these,  and  the  last  point  of  his  progress  is 
reached  when  he  feels  that  he  has  become  absolutely 
merged  in  the  object  of  his  worship.     We  all   begin 


PARA-BHAKTI.  339 

with  love  for  ourselves,  and  the  unfair  claims  of  the 
little  self  make  even  love  selfish;  at  last,  however, 
comes  the  full  blaze  of  light  in  which  this  little  self  is 
seen  to  have  become  one  with  the  one  Infinite.  Man  him- 
self is  so  transfigured  in  the  presence  of  this  Light  of 
Love.  His  heart  is  cleansed  of  all  impurities  and  vain 
desires  of  which  it  was  more  or  less  full  before;  and 
he  realises  at  last  the  beautiful  and  inspiring  truth 
that  Love,  Lover  and  the  Beloved  are  one. 


GLOSSARY 


[wi 


A    FEW    SIMPLE   HELPS   TO   PRONUNCIATION 

d  like  a  in  iav\  H  like  oo  in  \.oo  ; 

a  almost  like  u  in  b«t;  /  like  sh  in  j>^ip; 

^  like  ^  in  n^zme;  ch  like  ^>^  in  x\ck  ; 

i  like  ^^  in  see  j  at  like  /  in  fine. 

No  attempt  is  made  to  give  the  finer  distinctions  of 
Sanskrit  pronunciation,  as  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
language  would  be  needed  to  grasp  them. 

In  this  glossary  are  to  be  found  words  commonly 
used  in  books  and  pamphlets  on  Vedanta,  is  well  as 
those  that  are  employed  in  this  volume. 


[3431 


GLOSSARY 


Ahhaya Fearlessness. 

Abhdva Bereft  of  quality. 

Abheda Non-separateness ;    sameness; 

without  distinction. 

Abhidhyd Not   coveting   others*  goods, 

not  thinking  vain  thoughts, 
not  brooding  over  injuries 
received  from  others. 

Abhighdta Impediment. 

Abhimdna Pride. 

Abhinivesa Attachment  to  life. 

Abhydsa Practice. 

Achdrya Great  spiritual  teacher. 

Adarsa A  mirror  —  a  term  sometimes 

used  to  denote  the  finer 
power  of  vision  developed 
by  the  Yogf. 

Adhidaivika Supernatural. 

Adhikdri One  qualified  as  a  seeker  of 

wisdom. 

Aditi The  infinite,   the  goddess  of 

the  sky. 

Aditya The  Sun. 

Adityas Twelve  planetary  spirits. 

[343] 


344 


GLOSSARY. 


Adharma Absence  of  virtue;  unright- 
eousness. 

Adrogha Not  injuring. 

Adrogha-  Vdk One  who  does  not  harm  others 

even  by  words. 

Advaiia » .    .   .  (  4-dvaiio^)  Non-dualism.     The 

monistic  system  of  Vedanta 
philosophy. 

Advaitin A  follower  of  Advaita. 

Adhydsa Reflection,  as  the  crystal  re- 
flects the  color  of  the  object 
before  it.  Superimposition 
of  qualities  of  one  object 
over  another,  as  of  the  snake 
on  the  rope. 

Agni The  god  of  fire.      Later,  the 

Supreme  God  of  the  Vedas. 

Aham "I." 

Aham-Brahmdsmi "I  am  Brahman. " 

Ahamkdra Egoism.      Self-consciousness. 

Ahdra Gathering  in, —  as  food  to  sup- 
port the  body  or  the  mind. 

Aht7nsd Non-injuring  in  thought,  word, 

or  deed. 

Ahimsaka  . .    One  who  practises  Aht^nsd. 

Ajnd The  sixth  lotos  of  the  Yogis^ 

corresponding  to  a  nerve- 
centre  in  the  brain,  behind 
the  eyebrows.  Divine  per' 
ception. 


GLOSSARY.  345 

Ajndta One  who  has  attained  divine 

wisdom. 
Akdia The  all-pervading  material  of 

the  universe. 
Akbar Mogul  Emperor  of  India,  1542- 

1605. 
Akhanda Undivided. 

Akhanda-Satchiddnanda.  *'The  undivided  Existence- 
Knowledge-Bliss  Abso- 
lute." 

Alambana Objective  contemplation.  The 

things  which  are  supports 
to    the    mind   in    its   travel 

Godwards. 

Amritatvam Immortality. 

Andhata lit.    "  unstruck  sound. "     The 

fourth  lotos  of  the  Yogis  in 
the  Suiunind^  opposite  the 
heart. 

Anafida Bliss. 

Ananya-Bhakti Worship    of     one     particular 

Deity  in  preference  to  all 
others.  In  a  higher  sense, 
it  is  seeing  all  Deities  as  but 
so  many  forms  of  the  One 
God.  Singleness  of  love 
and  worship. 

Anavasdda.,, ., Cheerfulness,    not    becoming 

dejected.  Strength,  both 
mental  and  physical. 


346  GLOSSARY. 

Anifnd Attenuation. 

Antahkarana Internal    organ.      The    mind 

with  its  three  functions,  the 
cogitative  faculty,  the  de- 
terminative faculty  and  the 
egoism. 

Antarydmin The  name  of  livara^  —  mean- 
ing, He  who  knows  every- 
thing that  is  going  on  within 
{antara)  every  mind. 

Antardrdma The  Yogi  who  rests  in  the  final 

contemplation  of  the  Su- 
preme Lord,  (livara). 

Anubhava Realization. 

Anuddharsa Absence  of  excessive  merri- 
ment. 

Anumdna Inference. 

Anurakti. . The    attachment    that   comes 

after  the  knowledge  of  the 
nature  of  God. 

Anurdga, Great  attachment  to  livara. 

Anuvdda A  statement  referring  to  some- 
thing already  known. 

Apakshiyate To  decay. 

Apdnd One  of  the  five  manifestations 

of  prdna.  The  nerve-cur- 
rent in  the  body  which  gov- 
erns the  organs  of  excre- 
tion. 

Aparapratyaksha Super-sensuous  perception. 


GLOSSARY.  347 

Apardvidyd Lower  knowledge;  knowledge 

of  externals. 

Aparigraha Non-receiving  of  gifts;  not  in- 
dulging in  luxuries. 

Apas o. One  of  the  elements;  water; 

liquid. 

AprdtiMlya State  of  sublime  resignation. 

Apia One  who  has  attained  to  reali- 
zation of  God;  one  who  is 
self-illumined. 

Aptavdkyavt Words  of  an  Apia. 

Apiira   Merit. 

Aranyakas The  ancient  Rishis^  dwellers  in 

the  forest,  also  a  name  given 
to  the  books  composed  by 
them. 

Aristha Portents  or  signs  by  which  a 

Yogi  can  foretell  the  exact 
time  of  his  death. 

Arjavafrt « Straight-forwardness. 

A?'jufia The    hero    of    the   Bhagavad 

Gitd^  to  whom  Krishna  (in 
the  form  of  a  charioteer) 
taught  the  great  truths  of 
the  Veddnta  Philosophy. 

Artha Meaning. 

Arthavattva Fruition. 

Arfipa (^A-riipd)  Without  form. 

Arydvarta The  land  of  the  Aryans.     The 

name  applied  by  the  Hindus 
to  Northern  India. 


348  GLOSSARY. 

Asamprajndta The   highest   super-conscious 

state. 

Asana Position  ot   the   body  during 

meditation. 

Asat Non-being  or  existence.  Op- 
posite of  Sat.  AppUed  to 
the  changing  existence  of 
the  universe. 

Asmitd Non-discrimination. 

Aioka A  noted  Buddhist  King,  259- 

222  B.  C. 

Airama , . . .   Hermitage. 

Asvdda.^,^ lit.  *' taste,"  —  applied  to  the 

finer  faculty  of  taste  devel- 
oped by  the  Yogi. 

Asteyam Non-stealing. 

Asti. To  be,  or  exist. 

Atharva  Veda That  portion  of  the  Veda  wh.oh 

treats  of  psychic  powers. 

Athdto  Brahma-jijndid. .    **  Then  therefore,  the  enquiry 

into  Brahman^  \yeddnta 
Sutra,  i-i-I.] 

Atikrdnia-Chavaniya  . . .  The  stage  of  meditation  which 

ends  with  what  is  called 
**  Cloud  (or  Showerer)  of 
Virtue  "  Samddhi. 

Atithi A  guest. 

Aiman The  Eternal  Self. 

Avarana Coverings  (of  the  mind^ 

Avatdra A  divine  Incarnation. 


GLOSSARY.  349 

Avidyd Ignorance. 

Avritti -rasakrit-upadddt  ''Repetition    (of   the   mental 

functions  of  knowing,  medi- 
tating, etc.,  is  required)  on 
account  of  the  text  giving  in- 
structions more  than  once." 
yVeddnta  Sutra^  i-i-IV. ] 

Avyaktam Indiscrete ;     undifferentiated. 

Stage  of  nature,  when  there 
is  no  manifestation. 

Bdhya-Bhakti External  devotion  (as  worship 

through  rites,  symbols,  cere- 
monials,  etc.,  of  God). 

Bandha Bondage. 

Banyan- Tree (JPicus  I?idica')  Indian  fig  tree; 

the  branches  drop  roots  to 
the  ground,  which  grow  and 
form  new  trunks. 

Bhagavad-Gitd "The    Holy  Song."      A   gem 

of  Indian  literature  contain- 
ing the  essence  of  the 
Veddnia  Philosophy. 

Bhagavdn lit.  "  Possessor  of  all  powers." 

A  title  meaning  Great  Lord. 

Bhagavdn  Rdmakrishna .  A  great  Hindu   prophet   and 

teacher  of  the  19th  century, 
1835-1886.  [See  "  Life  and 
Sayings  of  Srt  Rdfnakrishna'^ 
by  F,  Max  Miiller.  London, 
1898.  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.,  and  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.     New  York.] 


350  GLOSSARY. 

Bhdgavata-Purdna One  of  the  principal  Purdnas, 

Bhakta A  great  lover  of  God. 

Bhakti Intense  love  for  God. 

Bhakti-  Yoga  , Union  with  the  Divine  through 

devotion. 

Bharaia A    great    Yogi    who    suffered 

much  from  his  excessive 
attachment  to  a  deer  which 
he  brought  up  as  a  pet. 

Bhdshya A  commentary. 

Bhautika Pertaining  to  the  BMtas^  or 

elements. 

Bhdvand Pondering;  meditation. 

Bheda Separateness. 

Bhikshu A  religious  mendicant,  a  term 

now  usually  applied  to  the 
Buddhist  monks. 

Bhoga Enjoyment  of  sense  objects. 

Bhoja The   annotator    of    the   Yoga 

Aphorisms. 

BMias Gross  elements. 

Bodha Intelligence. 

Brahmd The  Creator  of  the  universe. 

Brahmacharya Chastity  in  thought,  word  and 

deed. 

Brahmachdrin,    One  who  has  devoted  himself 

to  continence  and  the  pur- 
suit of  spiritual  wisdom. 

Brahman The  One  Existence,  the  Abso- 
lute. 


GLOSSARY.  351 

Brahmaloka The    world    of   Brahmd^    the 

highest  heaven. 

Brdhmana o . .  A  "  twice-born  man,"  a  Brah- 
min. 

Brdhmanas Those  portions  of  the  Vedas 

which  state  the  rules  for  the 
employment  of  the  hymns 
at  the  various  ceremonials. 
Each  of  the  four  Vedas  has 
its  own  Brdhmana. 

Brahma- Sutra-Bhdshya.   Commentary  on  the  aphorisms 

of  Veddnta. 

Brahmavddin Teacher  of  Brahman^  one  who 

speaks  or  teaches  of  Brah 
man  or  Absolute  Being. 

Brahmavidyd Knowledge   of  Brahman^   the 

supreme  wisdom  that  leads 
to  Mtikti. 

Brahmayoga The  Yoga  which  leads  to  the 

realization  of  the  Brahman. 
(Chap.  VIII  of  the  Bhagavad 
Gitd  is  called  by  that  name). 

Brahmin An  Anglicized  form  of  Brdh- 
mana^ a  member  of  the 
Brdhmana  caste. 

Buddha lit.   "The    Enlightened,'*  the 

name  given  to  one  of  the 
greatest  Incarnations  recog- 
nized by  the  Hindus,  born 
sixth  century  B.  C. 

Buddhi The  determinative  faculty. 


352  GLOSSARY. 

Chaitanya Pure  intelligence.     Name  of  a 

great  Hindu  sage  (born 
1485)  who  is  regarded  as  a 
Divine  Incarnation. 

Chdndogya  Upanishad. . .   One  of  the  oldest  Upanishads 

of  the  Sdma-  Veda. 

Chdrvdka A  materialist. 

Chiddkdid The  space  of  knowledge,  where 

the  Soul  shines  in  its  own 
nature. 

Chitia "Mind-stuff."  (The  fine  ma- 
terial out  of  which  the  mind 
has  been  manufactured). 

Chittdkdid The  mental  space. 

Dakshind Offering  made  to  a  priest,  or 

teacher,  at  religious  cere- 
monies. 

Dama •...,.   Control  of  the  organs. 

Ddna Charity. 

Ddsya "  Servantship ;"    the   state   of 

being  a  devoted  servant  of 
God. 

Dayd ••.•••..••  Mercy,      compassion,      doing 

good  to  others  without  hope 
of  return. 

Deha , Matter,  gross  body. 

Devadatta. *'  God-given. " 

Devas The  *'  shining  ones,"  semi-di- 
vine beings  representing 
states  attained  by  workers 
of  good. 


GLOSSARY.  353 

Devaloka Abode  of  the  gods. 

Devaydna The  path  which  leads  to  the 

sphere  of  the  gods,  or  the 

different  heavens. 
Devi-Bhdgavata One   of    the   Purdnas^   which 

describes  the  deeds  of  the 

Divine  Mother. 
Dhdrand Holding     the    mind    to    one 

thought  for  twelve  seconds. 

Concentration. 

Dharfna , Virtue.     Religious  duty. 

Dharma-megha "  Cloud  of  virtue, "  (applied  to 

a  kind  of  Samddhi^. 

Dhydna Meditation. 

Dhydnamdrga The  way  to  knowledge  through 

meditation. 
Dvandas Dualities    in    nature,  as    heat 

and  cold,  pleasure  and  pain, 

etc.,  etc. 

Dvesha Aversion. 

Dydva-Prithivt Heaven  (and)  Earth. 

Ekdgra Concentrated    state     of     the 

mind. 

Ekam One. 

Eka-Nisthd Intense  devotion  to  one  chosen 

ideal. 

Ekdnta-Bhakti. Singleness  of  love  and  devo- 
tion to  God. 
23 


354  GLOSSARY. 

Ekdtma-  Vddam Monism.  The  theory,  accord- 
ing to  which  there  is  only 
one  intelligent  Entity.  Pure 
idealism. 

Ekdyana The     one     stay     or     support 

of  all  things, —  hence  the 
Lord. 

Ganipaii. One  of  the  Hindu  deities. 

Gatieia A  woman-sage    mentioned    in 

the  Upanishads.  She  prac- 
tised Yoga  and  attained  to 
the  highest  super-conscious 
state. 

Gdrgi God  of  wisdom  and  *  *  remover 

of  obstacles."  He  is  always 
invoked  at  the  commence- 
ment of  every  important 
undertaking. 

Gaunt , . .   Preparatory  stage  of  Bhakti- 

Yoga. 

Gdyatri ,, A  certain  most  holy  verse  of 

the  Vedas, 

Ghaia , . . A  jar. 

Gopis Shepherdesses,  worshippers  of 

Krishna. 

Grahana Sense-perception. 

Grihastha A  householder,  head  of  a  fam- 

iiy. 

Gunas Qualities,  attributes 


GLOSSARY.  355 

Guru lit.  "the  dispeller  of  dark- 
ness." A  religious  teacher 
who  removes  the  ignorance 
of  the  pupil.  The  x^^Xgiiru 
is  a  transmitter  of  the  spirit- 
ual impulse  that  quickens 
the  spirit  and  awakens  a 
genuine  thirst  for  religion. 

Hamsa The  Jiva^  or  individual  soul. 

Hanumdn The  great  Bhakta  hero  of  the 

Rimdyana. 

Hart. lit.  "  One  who  steals  the  hearts 

and  reason  of  all  by  His 
beauty,"  hence  the  Lord,  a 
name  of  God. 

Hatha  Yoga The  science  of  controlling  body 

and  mind,  but  with  no  spirit- 
ual end  in  view,  bodily  per- 
fection being  the  only  aim. 

Hatha- Yogi  {or  Yogi ?{)..   One   who    practices    'Hatha- 

Yogay 

Hiranyagarbha lit.  "golden  wombed."  Ap- 
plied to  Brahma^  the  Crea- 
tor, as  producing  the  uni- 
verse out  of  Himself. 

Hum A  mystic  word  used  in  medi- 
tation as  symbolic  of  the 
highest  Bliss. 

Jdd The  nerve  current  on  the  left 

side  of  the  spinal  cord;  the 
left  nostril. 


356  GLOSSARY. 

Indra    Ruler  of  the  gods. 

Indriydni Sense  organs. 

Indriyas The  internal  organs  of  percep- 
tion. 

lidna One  of  the  devas. 

Ishiam Chosen  ideal  (from  "  ish^ "  to 

wish).  That  aspect  of  God 
which  appeals  to  one  most. 

Ishta  Nisthd Devotion  to  one  ideal. 

IshidpiHrta The  works  which  bring  as  re- 
ward the  enjoyments  of  the 
heavens. 

Ikjara The  Supreme  Ruler;  the  high- 
est possible  conception 
through  reason,  of  the  Ab- 
solute, which  is  beyond  all 
thought. 

livarapranidhdna Meditation  on  livara. 

livara  Pranidhdftddvd  . .   A  Slltra  of  Patanjali  —  entitled 

"  By  worship  of  the  Supreme 
Lord." 

Jada Inanimate. 

Jdgrat Waking  state. 

Jdti Species. 

Jdyate To  be  born. 

jiva,. The  individual  soul.     The  one 

Self  as  appearing  to  be  sepa- 
rated into  different  entities; 
corresponding  to  the  ordi- 
nary use  of  the  word  ^^soul" 


GLOSSARY.  357 

Jivatman The  At?nan  manifesting  as  the 

Jiva. 
Jivan  Mukta Ht.  "Living  Freedom."     One 

who  has  attained  hberation 

{Mukti)  even  while  in  the 

body. 

/nana Pure  intelligence.  Knowledge. 

Jndna-chaksu One    whose   vision    has    been 

purified  by  the  realization  of 
the  Divine. 

Jndnakdnda The    knowledge    portion     or 

philosophy  of  the  Vedas. 

Jndna-yajna *'  Wisdom-Sacrifice."     Perfect 

unselfishness,  purity  and 
goodness  which  lead  to 
/nana,  or  supreme  wisdom 
(^Moksha). 

/ndni  [or  /fidntn^ One     who     seeks     liberation 

through  pure  reason  or 
philosophy. 

Kaivalya Isolation.  Oneness  with  Ab- 
solute Being. 

Kdla Time. 

Kalpa A  cycle  (in  evolution). 

Kalydna Blessings. 

Kama Desire. 

Kapila ^. . ,  Author  of  the   Sdnkhya   Phi- 

losophy,  and  the  father  of 
the  Hindu  Evolutionists. 

Kapilavastu Birthplace    of     Gautama    the 

Buddha. 

Kdrikd A  running  commentary. 


358  GLOSSARY. 

Karma Work  or  action,  also  effects  of 

actions;  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect  in  the  moral  world. 

Karmakd?ida The  ritualistic  portion  of  the 

Vedas. 

Karmendriyas Organs  of  action. 

Karma-  Yoga Union  with  the  Divine  through 

the  unselfish  performance  of 
duty. 

Khanda Differentiated,  or  divided ;  di- 
vision. 

Klesa Troubles. 

Krishna An  Incarnation  of   God    who 

appeared  in  India  about 
1400  B.  C.  Most  of  his 
teachings  are  embodied  in 
the  Bhagavad  Gitd. 

Kriyd Action,  ritual,  ceremonial. 

Kriyamdna  • The  Karma  we  are  making  at 

present. 

Kriyd'  Yoga Preliminary  Yoga^  the  perform- 
ance of  such  acts  as  lead 
the  mind  higher  and  higher. 

Kshaiia Moments. 

Kshatriya Member   of    the   warrior   (or 

second)  caste  of  ancient 
India. 

Kshetra lit.    "  the  perishable,"  also  "  a 

field."  Applied  to  the  human 
body  (as  the  field  of  action.) 


GLOSSARY.  359 

Kshetrajna The  knower  of  Kshetra.   (Gita, 

Chap.  XII.)     The  soul. 

Kiimbhaka Retention  of  the  breath  in  the 

practice  oi  pt'dndydma. 

Kiindalini lit.     "  the    coiled-up."       The 

residual  energy,  located  ac- 
cording to  the  Yogts^  at  the 
base  of  the  spine,  and  which 
in  ordinary  men  produces 
dreams,  imagination,  psychi- 
cal perceptions,  etc.,  and 
which,  when  fully  aroused 
and  purified,  leads  to  the 
direct  perception  of  God. 

fCunti o The  mother  of  the  five  Fdmla- 

z'as,  the  heroes  who  opposed 
the  Kauravas  at  the  battle 
oi  Kurukshetra^  the  account 
of  which  forms  the  principal 
theme  of  the  Mahdbhdrata, 
the  Indian  epic. 

Kurma ,  The    name   of   a  nerve  upon 

which  the  Yogis  meditate. 

fCu7-ma-Purdna One  of  the  eighteen  principal 

Purdnas. 

Ku§a   A  kind  of  Indian  grass  used 

in  religious  rites. 

Madhubhumiba The  second  stage  of  the  Yogi 

when  he  gets  beyond  the  ar- 
gumentative condition. 


360  GLOSSARY. 

Madhumati lit.     **  honeyed. "      The   state 

when  knowledge  gives  satis- 
faction as  honey  does. 

Mathurd Sweet.     That  form  of  ^/^aM 

in  which  the  relation  of  the 
devotee  towards  God  is  like 
that  of  a  loving  wife  to  her 
husband. 

Madvdchdrya Commentator  of  the  dualistic 

school  of  the  Vedanta  phi- 
losophy. 

Mahdkdia lit.    "Great    space"    (applied 

to  ordinary  space). 

Mahdpurusha Great  Soul.     (Incarnation.) 

Mahat lit.  "  The  great  one. "     Cosmic 

intelligence. 

Mahattattva Great   principle.     The  ocean 

of  intelligence  evolved  first 
from  indiscrete  nature,  ac- 
cording to  Sdnkhya  philos- 
ophy. 

Mahdyoga. Seeing  the  Self  as  one  with  God. 

Maitriya lit.  "  Full  of  compassion."    The 

name  of  a  Hindu  sage. 

Manas The  deliberative  faculty  of  the 

mind. 

Mantra Any  prayer,  holy  verse,  sacred 

or  mystic  word  recited  or 
contemplated  during  wor- 
ship. 


GLOSSARY.  361 

Mantra-drashtd "  Seer  of  thought."  One  pos- 
sessed of  super-sensuous 
knowledge. 

ManipHra lit.  "  Filled  with  jewels."    The 

third  lotos  of  the  Yogis^  op- 
posite the  navel  (in  the 
Suhi?nnd). 

Mdtrds Seconds. 

Matha Monastery. 

Mathurd    [Now    known 

as  "  MuUrd''\ Birth-place  of  Krishna. 

Mdyd Mistaking  the  unreal  and  phe- 
nomenal for  the  real  and 
eternal.  Commonly  trans- 
lated illusion,  (lit.  '*  which 
baffles  all  measurement.") 

Mhndnsd lit.  "  Solution  of  a  problem. " 

One  of  the  six  schools  of 
Indian  philosophy. 

Moksha Freedom,  liberation  (^Mukti'). 

Moksha-dharma The  virtues  which  lead  to  lib- 
eration of  the  soul. 

Mrityu Death.      Another    name    for 

Yama. 

Mukti Emancipation  from  rebirth. 

M^ldd/idra The  basic  lotos  of  the  Yogis. 

Mu?nukhitvam Desire  for  liberation. 

Mu7idaka-  Upanishad. . . .   One  of   the   twelve   principal 

Upanishads. 

Muni. A  (religious)  sage. 


362  GLOSSARY. 

Ndda Sound,  finer  than  is  heard  by 

our  ears. 

Ndda-Brahma The  ''  ^omvk^- Brahman.''     The 

Om,  that  undifferentiated 
Word,  which  has  produced 
all  manifestation. 

Nddi A  tube  along  which  something 

flows  —  as  the  blood  cur- 
rents, or  nervous  energies. 

Nddi-suddhi lit.  "  Purification  of  the  chan- 
nel through  which  the  nerve 
currents  flow,"  One  of  the 
elementary  breathing  exer- 
cises. 

Naiithika One  possessed  of  a  singleness 

of  devotion  towards  a  high 
ideal  of  life. 

Namah Salutation. 

Ndma-r-dpa Name  and  form. 

Ndmaiakti The    power    of    the    name    of 

God. 

Narada The  great  "  god-intoxicated  " 

sage  of  ancient  India,  who 
is  reputed  to  have  possessed 
all  the  "powers"  described 
in  Yoga  philosophy. 

Ndrada- Sutra The  Aphorisms  of  Narada  on 

Bhakti. 

Ndrdyana ''Mover  on  the  waters,"  a  title 

of  Vishnu. 


GLOSSARY.  363 

Naiardja lit.     "Lord     of    the    stage." 

Sometimes  used  for  God  as 
the  Lord  of  this  vast  stage 
the  universe. 

''Neti.Netr ♦*  Not  this,  not  this.'* 

Nimitta Operative  cause. 

Nirdlatnbana lit.  "  Supportless,"  a  very  high 

stage  of  meditation,  accord- 
ing to  Yoga  philosophy. 

Nirbija lit.     "Without    seed."      The 

highest  form  of  Samddhi  or 
super-conscious  state  of  the 
mind  according  to  Yoga 
philosophy. 

Nirguna Without  attributes  or  quali- 
ties. 

Nishkdmakartna Unselfish  action.     To  do  good 

acts  without  caring  for  the 
results. 

Nitya Permanent,  eternal. 

Nirukta Science  dealing  with  etymol- 
ogy and  the  meaning  of 
words. 

Nirvdna Freedom ;  extinction  or  "blow- 
ing out  "  of  delusions. 

Nh'vichdra Without  discrimination. 

Nirvikalpa Changeless. 

Nirvitarka Without  question  or  reasoning. 

Nivritti **  Revolving  away  from." 

Nishthd Singleness  of  attachment. 


364  GLOSSARY. 

Niyama The    virtues    of    cleanliness, 

contentment,  mortification, 
study  and  self-surrender. 

Nydya The  school    of   Indian   logic. 

The  science  of  logical  phi- 
losophy. 

Ojas lit.      "The     illuminating     or 

bright."  The  highest  form 
of  energy  attained  by  a  con- 
stant practice  of  continence 
and  purity. 

Om  or  Omkdra The  most  holy   word  of   the 

Vedas.  A  symbolic  word 
meaning  the  Supreme  Being, 
the  Ocean  of  Knowledge  and 
Bliss  Absolute. 

Om  tat  sat lit.     "  Om    That    Existence. " 

That  Ocean  of  Knowledge 
and  Bliss  Absolute,  the  only 
Reality. 

Pada Foot. 

Pdda Chapter.  . 

Pard Supreme. 

Pard-Bhakti Supreme  devotion. 

Paramaha??isa Supreme  soul. 

Pardvidyd Highest  knowledge. 

Parinamate To  ripen. 

Parjanya God  of  rain,  and  of  the  clouds. 

Patanjali Founder  of  the    Yoga  School 

of  Philosophy. 


GLOSSARY.  365 

Pingald The  nerve-current  on  the  right 

side  of  the  spinal  cord;  also 
the  right  nostril. 

Pingald A  courtesan   who  abandoned 

her  vicious  life  and  became 
remarkable  for  her  piety  and 
virtue. 

Pitris Forefathers,  ancestors. 

Pradhdna lit.  ''The  chief."  The  prin- 
cipal element;  a  name  used 
for  nature  in  Sdnkya  phi- 
losophy. 

Prajnd Highest      knowledge      which 

leads  to  the  realization  of 
the  Deity. 

Prajndjyoti One  who  has  been  illumined 

with  knowledge  transcend- 
ing the  senses. 

Prakriti Nature. 

Prakritilayas :...   Souls   that   have  got   all    the 

powers  that  nature  has  by 
becoming  one  with  nature. 

Prahldda The  chief  of  Bhaktas.  [Devo- 
tees.] 

Pramdna Means  of  proof. 

Prameya Correct  cognition. 

Prdna The  sum  total  of  the  cosmic 

energy,  the  vital  forces  of 
the  body. 

Prdndydma Controlling  the  prdna. 


366  GLOSSARY. 

Pranidhdna Unceasing  devotion. 

Frdrabdha The  works  or  Karma  whose 

fruits  we  have  begun  to  reap 
in  this  life. 

Prasankhydna Abstract  contemplation. 

Pratha7nakalpika Argumentative    condition    of 

the  conscious  Yogi. 

Pratibhd. . , Divine  illumination. 

Pratika lit.     "Going     towards."       A 

finite  symbol  standing  for 
the  infinite  Brahman. 

Pratimd The  use  of  images  as  sym- 
bols. 

Prativishaya That  which  is  applied  to  the 

different  objects,  /.  ^.,  the 
organs  of  sense. 

Pratydhdra Making  the  mind  introspec- 
tive. 

Praiyagdtman The  internal  self;  the  self- 
luminous. 

Pratyakshafn .,,  .   Direct  perception. 

Pravritti "  Revolving  towards." 

Priii Pleasure  in  God. 

Prithivi , One  of  the  elements;   earth; 

solids. 

Piiraka Inhalation. 

Purdnas Writings  containing  the  Hindu 

mythology. 

Puruia The  Soul. 

Piirva-paksha The  prima  facie  view. 


GLOSSARY.  367 

Q'uran The  Mahommedan  Scriptures 

Rdga Attachment    to    those    things 

that  please  the  senses. 

Rdgdnugd , The  highest  form  of  love  and 

attachment  to  the  Lord. 

Raja lit.  "  To  shine."     Royal. 

Raja  Hamsa Swan. 

Rajas Activity.       One  of  the  three 

principles  which    form    the 
essence  of  nature. 

Raja  Yoga lit.      "Royal     yogar        The 

science  of   conquering   the 
internal  nature,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  realizing  the  Divin 
ity  within. 

Rdkshasa A  demon. 

Rdmdnuja A  noted  commentator  of  the 

Vishiitadvaita  School  of  Phi- 
losophy (qualified  monistic). 

Rdma An  Incarnation  of  God,  and 

hero  of  the  celebrated  epic — 
the  '"''  Rd7ndyana.'' 

Rdmdyatii, A  celebrated  Indian  epic  poem 

written  by  Valmiki,  a  sage. 

Rang A  symbolic  word  for  the  high- 
est wisdom. 

Rasdyanas The     alchemists    of     ancient 

India. 

Rechaka Exhalation. 


368  GLOSSARY. 

Big-Veda Oldest  portion  of  the   Vedas^ 

composed  of  hymns. 

Eishi lit.       "  Seer       of       mantras " 

(thoughts).  One  possessed 
of  super-sensuous  knowl- 
edge. 

Ritambhardprajna One  whose  knowledge  is  truth- 
supporting. 

Rudra A  name  of  a  Vedic  god. 

^abda Sound.  \ 

Sabdabrahma The  creative  word  correspond- 
ing to  the  Logos. 

^abda  Nishtham  Jag€t , ,   "Through    sound    the   world 

stands." 

Sabija  Yoga "  Seeded  "  meditation  (that  is  " 

where  all  seeds  of  future 
Kavftia  are  not  yet  de- 
stroyed). 

Saguna With  qualities. 

Saguna-Brahma The  qualified  or  lower  Brah- 
man. 

Saguna-vidyd Qualified  knowledge. 

Sahairdra The  "thousand-petalled  lotos," 

a  figurative  expression  of 
the  Yogis  describing  the 
brain. 

Sakhya Friendship. 

Sakti Power. 

Sdlokva Dwelling  in  the  presence  of 

God. 


GLOSSARY.  369 

Sama Not  allowing  the  mind  to  ex- 
ternalize. 

Sdffia-  Veda The  hymn  portion  of  the  Vcda^ 

or  that  portion  which  was 
sung  during  the  ceremonies. 

Samddhi Super-consciousness. 

Safiiddhdna Constant  practice. 

Samdna o The  nerve  current  that  controls 

the  function  of  digestion. 

^dmdnyatadrishta Inference  based  on  superficial 

reasoning. 

Samdpatti lit.     "  Treasures. "      Used    in 

Yoga  philosophy  to  indicate 
the  different  stages  of  medi- 
tation. 

Samarasa Equality. 

Samasti The  universal. 

Sdfnipya Closeness  to  God. 

Samprajndia The  first  stage  of  super-con- 
sciousness     which      comes 

through  deep  meditation. 

Samsdra Endless  cycle  of  manifestation. 

Samskdras Impressions  in  the  mind-stuff 

that  produce  habits. 

Samyama lit.    **  Control. "     In  the   Yoga 

philosophy  it  is  technically 
used  for  that  perfect  control 
of  the  powers  of  the  mind, 
by  which  the  Yogz  ca.n  know 
anything  in  the  universe. 
24 


370  GLOSSARY. 

Sdnandam The  "  blissful  Samddhi.'*    The 

third  step  of  the  samprajndta 
samddhi.  The  object  of 
meditation  in  this  state  is 
the  "  thinking  organ  "  bereft 
of  activity  and  dullness. 
(^Rajas  and  Tamas.) 

Sanchita The    stored  up,  past  Karnia^ 

whose  fruits  we  are  not  reap- 
ing now,  but  which  we  shall 
have  to  reap  in  the  future. 

Sdndilya Writer    of  the  Aphorisms  of 

Divine  Love  {Bhakti^  ^-^"^ 
the  Advaita  point  of  view. 

^ankardcMrya The  great  exponent  and  com- 
mentator of  the  non-dualistic 
school  of  Vedanta.  He  is 
supposed  to  have  lived  in 
India  about  the  eighth  cen- 
tury A.  D. 

Sdnkhya lit.  "  That  which  reveals  truth 

perfectly."  The  name  of  a 
famous  system  of  Indian 
philosophy,  founded  by  the 
great  sage  Kapila. 

Sankocha  ...» Shrinking,  contraction  or  non- 
manifestation. 

Sannydsa Complete  renunciation  of  all 

worldly  position,  property 
and  name. 


GLOSSARY.  371 

Sannydsin One  who  makes  Sannydsa,  and 

lives  a  life  of  self-sacrifice, 
devoting  himself  entirely  to 
religion. 

Santa Peaceful  or  gentle  love. 

Sdnta-Bhakta A  devotee  who  has  attained  to 

peace  through  the  path  of 
Divine  love. 

Sdntih Peace. 

Santoia Contentment. 

Sdrupya Growing  like  God. 

Sdstra Books  accepted  as  Divine  au- 
thority.    Sacred  Scriptures. 

Sat Existence-Absolute. 

Satchiddnanda "  Existence-Knowledge-Bliss 

Absolute." 

Sattva Illumination    material.      One 

of  the  three  principles  which 
form  the  essence  of  nature. 

Sattva-purshdnvatdkhydti  The  perception  of  the  Self  as 

different  from  the  principles 
of  nature. 

Sdttvika Having     the    Sattva     quality 

highly  developed,  hence  one 
who  is  pure  and  holy. 

Satyam Truthfulness. 

Saucham Cleanliness. 

Savichdra With  discrimination.    (Amode 

of  meditation.) 


372  GLOSSARY. 

Saviiarka Meditation  with  reasoning  or 

question. 

Sdyujya . . .  , Unity  with  Brahman. 

Sdkshi Witness. 

Siddha-Guru A  teacher  who   has   attained 

Mukti. 

Siddhd7ita ,    Decisive  knowledge. 

Siddhas Semi-divine  beings,  or    Yogis ^ 

who  have  attained  super- 
natural powers. 

Siddhis The       supernatural      powers 

which  come  through  the 
practice  of  Yoga. 

Sikshd The  science  dealing  with  pro- 
nunciation and  accents. 

&ishya , A    student   or   disciple    of    a 

Guru. 

^iva o The      "  Destroyer  "     of     the 

Hindu  trinity.  Sometimes 
regarded  in  the  Hindu 
mythology  as  the  One  God. 

!Stvoham »- ,   "  I  am  ^iva''  (or  eternal  bliss). 

^loka Verse. 

Smriti (i)  Memory.  (2)  Any  authori- 
tative religious  book,  ex- 
cept the  Vedas. 

Soham **IamHe." 

Soma A  certain  plant,  the  juice  of 

which  was  used  in  the 
ancient  sacrifices. 


GLOSSARY.  373 

Sphota The  eternal,  essential  material 

of  all  ideas  or  names,  which 
makes  words  possible,  yet  is 
not  any  definite  word  in  a 
fully  formed  state.  The  in- 
expressible Manifestor  be- 
hind all  the  expressed,  sensi- 
ble universe.  The  power 
through  which  the  Lord 
creates  the  universe.  Its 
symbol  is  the  eternal  Om. 

^rdddhd Strong  faith  in  religion. 

^ravana (i)  Hearing,  the  ears.    (2)  The 

finer  power  of  hearing  de- 
veloped by  the  Yogi. 

^ri , Holy,  or  blessed. 

^ri  Bhdshya Name    of   the    qualified    non- 

dualistic  commentary  of 
Vedanta  by  Rdmanuja, 

^rotiyas ...•.   lit.  **  High  born,"  or  born  of 

a  noble  family.  The  Hindu 
^  students     who     know     the 

Vedds  by  heart. 

^ruti, . , The  Vedas,  so  called  because 

transmitted  orally  from 
father  to  son  in  ancient 
times.  The  Vedas  are  re- 
garded by  all  orthodox 
Hindus  as  Divine  revelation 
and  as  the  supreme  author- 
ity in  religious  matters. 


374  GLOSSARY. 

Sthiii Stability. 

Sthula  ^arira Gross  body. 

^ukshma  ^arira  [some- 
times called  "  Lifiga 
^arira  "] Fine  or  subtle  body. 

^unya  Vdda Doctrine  of  the  void ;  nihilism. 

Sushupti Deep,  dreamless  sleep. 

Sushumnd The  name  given  by  the  Yogis 

to  the  hollow  canal  which 
»runs  through  the  centre  of 
the  spinal  cord. 

Siltra lit.  "  Thread. "    Usually  means 

aphorism. 

Svddhisthdna lit.  "  Abode  of  Self."     Second 

lotos  of  the  Yogis^  between 
base  of  spine  and  the  navel. 

Svddhydya Study. 

Svdhd!  o "  May  it  be  perpetuated,"  or 

"so  be  it."  An  expression 
used  in  making  oblation. 

Svapna The  dream  state. 

Svaptieivara Commentator  of   the  Aphor- 
isms of  Sdndilya. 

Svai'flpa Natural  form. 

Svasii A   blessing,    meaning  "  Good 

be  unto  you." 

Svdti Name  of  a  star. 

Svarga Heaven. 

Svdmi A  title  meaning  *'  master,"  or 

*' spiritual  teacher." 

^veidsvatara-Upanishad ,   One  of  the  chief  Upanishads  of 

the  Yajur-Veda, 


GLOSSARY.  375 

Tadiyatd lit.     ' '  His-ness. "     The    state 

when  a  man  has  forgotten 
himself  altogether,  in  his 
love  for  the  Lord,  and  does 
not  feel  that  anything  be- 
longs to  him  personally. 

Tamas *'  Darkness,"  inertia. 

Tanmdtras Fine  materials. 

Tantras Books  held  to  be  sacred  by  a 

certain  sect  in  India. 

Tantrfkas.  . . . . » Followers  of  the  Tanti-as, 

Tapas  .•..„.,  o Controlling  the  body  by  fast- 
ing or  other  means.  Aus- 
terity. 

Tdraka o ..... .    Saviour. 

Tarka Question  or  reasoning. 

"  Tat  tvam  asV' "  That  thou  art." 

Tattvas Categories,  principles,  truths. 

Tejas One  of  the  elements ;  fire ;  heat. 

Titikshd Ideal  forbearance.     "  AU-suf- 

feringness." 

Trishnd Thirst,  desire. 

Tuhidds A  great  sage  and    poet   who 

popularised  the  famous  epic, 
the  Rdiiidyana,  by  translat- 
ing it  from  Sanskrit  into 
Hindustani  dialect. 

Turtya The  fourth,  or  highest  state  of 

consciousness. 

Tydga Renunciation. 


376  GLOSSARY. 

Uddna  • Nerve  current  governing  the 

organs  of  speech,  etc. 

Uddhdrsa Excessive  merriment. 

Udgitha lit.  "  That  which    is    chanted 

aloud,"  hence  the  Franava 
or  Oni. 

Udgdtha Awakening  the  Kimdalini. 

Updddna The    material    cause    of    the 

world. 

Upddhi Limiting  adjunct. 

Uparati Not  thinking  of  things  of  the 

senses;  discontinuing  exter- 
nal religious  observances. 

Updyapratyaya A  state  of  abstract  medita- 
tion. 

Uttara  Gitd The  name  of  a  book  supposed 

to  be  related  by  Sri  Krishna 
for  the  further  instruction  of 
A7'juna. 

Uttara  Mimdnsd Another  name  for  the  Veddnta 

philosophy,  written  origin- 
ally in  the  form  of  aphorisms 
by  Vydsa. 

Vach  or  Vdk lit.  ** speech."    The  Word,  the 

Logos. 

Vdda Argumentative  knowledge. 

Vairdgyam Non-attachment  to  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  senses.  Re- 
nunciation. 


GLOSSARY.  377 

Vaiieshika A  branch  of  the  Nydya  school 

of  philosophy;  the  Atomic 
school. 

Vaishnavas The  followers  or  worshippers 

of  Vishnu^  who  form  one  of 
the  principal  Hindu  religious 
sects. 

Vdmadeva A  great  Rishi  who  possessed 

the  highest  spiritual  enlight- 
enment from  the  time  of  his 
birth. 

Vdnaprastha The  forest  life.     Third  of  the 

four  stages  into  which  the 
life  of  a  man  was  divided  in 
ancient  India. 

Vardha-Purdna One  of  the  eighteen  principal 

Pur  anas, 
Vardhate To  grow. 

Vdrttkam A  concise  explanatory  note. 

Varuna The  old  Vedic  god  of  the  sky. 

Vdsand A  habit  or  tendency  arising 

from  an  impression  remain- 
ing unconsciously  in  the 
mind  from  past  Karma. 

Vdsudeva Manifestation   of  the  highest 

Being. 

Vdisalya The  affection  of   parents   for 

children. 

Vdyu lit.     "the    vibrating."       The 

air. 


3/8  GLOSSARY. 

Vedand The  fine  power  of  feeling  de- 
veloped by  the  Yogi. 

Vedas «, The  Hindu  Scriptures,  consist- 
ing of  the  Rig-  Veda,  the  Ya- 
jur-  Veda,  the  Sama-  Veda,  the 
Artharva-  Veda ;  also  the 
^  Brahmanas  and  the  Upanish- 
ads  J  comprising  the  hymns, 
rituals  and  philosophy  of  the 
Hindu  religion. 

Veddnta The   final    philosophy  of   the 

Vedas,  as  expressed  in  the 
Upanishads.  The  philosoph- 
ical system  which  embraces 
all  Indian  systems  of  phi- 
losophy,—  the  monistic,  the 
mono-dualistic  and  the  dual- 
istic. 

Veddvai  anantah A  quotation  from  the    Vedas, 

meaning  "The  Scriptures 
are  infinite." 

Videha Disembodied,  or  unconscious 

of  body. 

Vidyd Science,  or  knowledge. 

Vidvdn One  who  knows. 

Vijndna The  higher  knowledge. 

Vikalpa Verbal  delusion,  doubt,  notion, 

fancy. 

Vikaranabhdva Uninstrumental  perception. 


GLOSSARY.  379 

Vikshipta  • A  scattered  or  confused  state 

of  the  mind. 

Vimoksha Absence  of  desire.     Absolute 

freedom. 

Vind A  stringed  musical  instrument 

of  India. 

Viparyaya False  conception  of   a  thing 

whose  real  form  does  not 
correspond  to  that  concep- 
tion, as  mother  of  pearl  mis- 
taken for  silver. 

Vipra A  sage  who  was  born  and  bred 

a  Brahmin. 

Viraha Intense  misery  due  to  separa- 
tion from  the  beloved  one. 

Virya Strength,  energy. 

Vishnu The      "Preserver"     of     the 

Hindu  trinity,  who  takes 
care  of  the  universe,  and 
who  incarnates  from  time  to 
time  to  help  mankind. 

Visishtddvaita ,,   Qualified     non-dualism.        A 

school  of  Indian  philosophy, 
founded  by  Ramanuja,  a 
great  religious  reformer, 
which  teaches  that  the  indi- 
vidual soul  is  a  part  of  God. 

VUishtddvaiiin A  follower  of  the  above  school 

of  philosophy;  a  qualified 
non-dualist. 


380  GLOSSARY. 

Viioka *'Sorrowless." 

Vivekdnanda ''  Bliss-in-discrimination/' 

Vitarka Questioning   or  philosophical 

enquiry. 

Viveka Discrimination    (of    the   true 

from  the  false). 

VUuddha The  fifth  lotos  of  the   Yogis, 

opposite  the  throat  (in  the 
Sushumna). 

Vraja A  suburb  of  the  city  of  Muttray 

where  Krishna  played  in  his 
childhood. 

Vrindd •••....  The  attendant  of  the  principal 

Gopi. 

Vritti lit.  "  The  whirlpool. "     Wave 

form  in  the  chitta  j  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  mind. 

Vydna The  nerve  current  which  cir- 
culates all  over  the  body. 

Vydsa lit.  *'  One  who  expands  "  (as  a 

commentator).  One  Vydsa 
was  the  author  of  the  Mahd- 
hhdrata  and  of  the  Uttara 
Mimdnsd. 

Vydsa  Sutras The   Vedanta  Aphorisms  by 

Vydsa. 

Vyasti The  particular  (as  opposed  to 

the  universal). 

Vyutthdna Waking,  or  returning  to  con- 
sciousness after  abstract 
meditation. 


GLOSSARY.  381 

Yajur-Veda The  ritualistic  portion  of  the 

Veda. 

Yama The       internal       purification 

through  moral  training,  pre- 
paratory to  Yoga.  The  god 
of  Death,  so  called  from  his 
power  of  self-control. 

Yoga..,., Joining;    union  of  the   lower 

self  with  the  higher  self,  by 
means  of  mental  control. 
Any  sort  of  culture  that 
leads  us  to  God. 

Yoga  SCdra Aphorism  on  Yoga. 

Yogi One  who  practices  Yoga. 

Yudhisthira  . A  great  Hindu  Emperor  who 

lived  about  1400  B.  C.  He 
was  one  of  the  five  Pdndavas. 

Yuga A  cycle  or  age  of  the  world. 

The  present  cycle  is  known 
in  India  as  the  "  Kali-  Yuga' 
or  "Iron-Age." 


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